SENSATIONS in amputated limbs seem to be caused by the activation of dormant
sensory connections, a study in the current issue of Neuroreport
concludes (vol 9, p 1013).
杏吧原创s have long been interested in the phenomenon of 鈥減hantom limbs鈥�, in
which people who have lost arms or legs report sensations in the missing limb.
They produce these sensations by stroking the person鈥檚 face or intact arm. But
it has never been clear whether the neural connections that caused them resulted
from a remapping of the brain following the injury or the unmasking of
pre-existing pathways.
David Borsook鈥檚 team at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston studied
a 25-year-old man just 23 hours after his arm had been amputated. When touched
on the mouth, he felt sensation in his lost arm. They suggest that dormant
neuronal connections had been reactivated following the amputation.
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