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Sensory-Motor Areas and Aspects of Cortical Connectivity pp 1–29Cite as

What Makes a Map in Somatosensory Cortex?

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Part of the book series: Cerebral Cortex ((CECO,volume 5))

Abstract

The quotation from Van Vogt’s novel (1970) has particular relevance for students of somesthesis. Some of the most fundamental concepts about the organization of somatosensory pathways are currently undergoing rapid and radical change. Maps represent some of these concepts pictorially, expressing the relationships between functions and structures. In these efforts to understand and to communicate ideas to others, we often create the “semantic disturbance” noted by Van Vogt. In the interest of clarifying the relationship between a map and the concept it designates, the following pages explore the history of mapmaking in somatosensory cortex and summarize the evolution of the underlying ideas. Following this we examine more carefully how a map is made and what its limitations are.

For the sake of sanity remember: “The map is not the territory, the word is not the thing it describes.” Wherever the map is confused with the territory, a “semantic disturbance” is set up in the organism. The disturbance continues until the limitation of the map is recognized.

—The Players of Null-A (Van Vogt, 1970, p. 158)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Surgery, Neurology and Neurosurgery, and Physiology, McGill University, H3A 1A1, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Robert W. Dykes

  2. Faculty of Dental Medicine, University of Montreal, H3C 3J7, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Andre Ruest

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  1. Robert W. Dykes
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  2. Andre Ruest
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. California College of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, USA

    Edward G. Jones

  2. Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Alan Peters

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© 1986 Plenum Press, New York

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Dykes, R.W., Ruest, A. (1986). What Makes a Map in Somatosensory Cortex?. In: Jones, E.G., Peters, A. (eds) Sensory-Motor Areas and Aspects of Cortical Connectivity. Cerebral Cortex, vol 5. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2149-1_1

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