PEOPLE who have lost a limb often experience chronic pain seemingly coming
from the missing limb, or feel sensation in the absent limb if someone touches
their face. Following a study using monkeys, researchers say this is caused by a
deep-seated rewiring of the brain.
Conscious thought and memory are dealt with in the cortex. When part of the
cortex no longer receives sensory input—because of amputation or a spinal
cord injury—adjacent nerves encroach on the defunct region, essentially
taking it over. This often results in people perceiving a missing limb, or
suffering constant pain.
Neuroscientists suspected that…
