New Study Suggests Mind-Body Connection is Hardwired in the Brain

The nervous system is cross-wired, so that the left side of the brain controls the right half of the body and vice versa. While this neural cross-wiring is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom, biologists still aren’t certain what its benefit is. An intriguing answer has come from the world of mathematics. The key to that solution lies in exactly how neural circuits are laid out within brain tissue. The simplest way to introduce three-dimensionality into the 2D maps in our brain is to fold in the edges of the “body” plane 90 degrees, representing (for example) the skin of your chest folded around the sides of your rib cage. Folds in the cerebral cortex introduce a third dimension there too. Now, since the fibers must pass through the midline, because that’s where the central nervous system in our body runs, the two fibers become crossed.