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Watch Your Step!
31 December 2012

Watch Your Step!

Despite what we may think watching shows like America’s Funniest Home Videos most humans are remarkably adept at moving around without tripping or bumping into obstacles. This hazard-avoidance represents the brain’s precise coordination of sensory inputs – look! An approaching custard pie! – with motor outputs – duck! To understand how the brain achieves this, scientists asked volunteers to wear head-to-toe suits installed with air jets targeted to regions of the face and body (pictured), and scanned their brains as different jets were activated. Stimulating different body parts activated different parts of the brain’s parietal cortex – which integrates sensory inputs. Showing the volunteers images of balls flying towards their faces not only lit up the same brain area as air jets to the face, it also activated areas representing other body regions. The results suggest the brain contains a precise body map that helps us stay safe and out of embarrassing home videos.

Written by Ruth Williams

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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