Parietal Lobe · Structure
Somatosensory Cortex
Your body, drawn in touch.
The somatosensory cortex is the strip just behind the motor cortex that receives touch, pressure, temperature, and pain from every square centimeter of skin, arranged as an ordered map of your body.
What it does
- Locating where you were touched
- Distinguishing texture and temperature
- Sensing limb position (proprioception)
In the real world
Phantom limb pain
After amputation the map reorganizes, and neighboring areas invade the missing limb's territory. Mirror-box therapy uses vision to calm the confused map.