motor homunculus

motor homunculus

a figurative representation, in distorted human form, of the somatotopic organization of the motor cortex as originally mapped by U.S.-born Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield (1891–1976). Within this mapping, the size of the brain region associated with a body part reflects the complexity of the activities carried out with that part of the body rather than its actual size. Compare sensory homunculus.