Toes in the Brain
Foot painters, and other people who use their toes intensively, develop hand-like maps in the brain for their toes. Most humans don't, although other primates do.
It makes me wonder if my brain does that, because I use more of my body than most people do. I don't paint with my toes, but I do pick things up with them, and I can manipulate things such as light switches. I also use my mouth as a manipulatory appendage. I had no idea that most people have nearly no resolution in their lips until I read about it -- I routinely use mine to check for rough spots on something that's supposed to be smooth, because I can sense smaller variations with my lips than with my fingertips.
Or maybe it's just because I don't have some of the standard human wetware, leaving extra space for other exciting things such as a linguistic coprocessor.
It makes me wonder if my brain does that, because I use more of my body than most people do. I don't paint with my toes, but I do pick things up with them, and I can manipulate things such as light switches. I also use my mouth as a manipulatory appendage. I had no idea that most people have nearly no resolution in their lips until I read about it -- I routinely use mine to check for rough spots on something that's supposed to be smooth, because I can sense smaller variations with my lips than with my fingertips.
Or maybe it's just because I don't have some of the standard human wetware, leaving extra space for other exciting things such as a linguistic coprocessor.