Penfield and Boldrey: somatic motor and sensory representation in human cortex

What changed

Mapped motor and sensory responses during human cortical stimulation, revealing ordered unequal somatic representation.

Scientific scope

The record is the exact two-author 1937 Brain paper. Its maps aggregate observations from surgical patients and the techniques of the period; they are not an invariant one-to-one anatomical atlas, and later homunculus drawings and reinterpretations remain separate.

Evidence

The linked sources identify this contribution and its scope. WRS has not independently reconstructed the scientific claims. The record is the exact two-author 1937 Brain paper. Its maps aggregate observations from surgical patients and the techniques of the period; they are not an invariant one-to-one anatomical atlas, and later homunculus drawings and reinterpretations remain separate.

Contributors

• Wilder Penfield · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.
• Edwin Boldrey · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.

• Oxford DOI for Penfield-Boldrey cortical mapping
• Brain historical reassessment of Penfield-Boldrey maps

Provisional WRS assessment, edition 2026-10-16.1. Independent expert calibration is pending. This grade does not certify correctness or assign ownership.

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