How the brain manages all the different senses

The picture that you see as your brain peers through your eyes and out into the world travels to the visual cortex in the very back of the brain. The scene each eye picks up goes to the brain stem, to a little junction box. Nerve fibers from the junction box send this data across the middle of the brain stem and to the very back of the brain where it’s projected on the opposite side. For example, what your eyes see to the upper left is shown on the lower right part of the map.

Hearing is presented on a whole series of little maps that arrange the pitch by frequency. The hearing cortex is located between the more straightforward mechanical areas that coordinate movement and the areas where more emotional functions are known to reside.

Ordinary touch is mapped according to the position on the body, just like the area responsible for simple movements. Taste and smell have their own special locations in the brain stem and frontal cortex just above the nose.