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Researchers Identify Phantom Limb Brain Activity

Posted by kdawson on from the little-bit-to-the-left dept.

mmmscience writes "Researchers in Switzerland think they had identified the regions of the brain responsible for creating phantom limbs and the senses that go along with them. Scientists studied a stroke victim who claimed that the phantom limb of her now-paralyzed left arm could do a number of things a normal limb could do, including 'scratch an itch on her head, with an actual sense of relief.'"

2 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. bloggers aren't jouros by backwardMechanic · · Score: 5, Informative

    Vacuous lack of information? What's this 'scientists in Switzerland' rubbish? We may not be the biggest country, but it would be polite to say which scientists, even where. For anyone that cares, the study was led by Asaid Khateb, a neuropsychologist at Geneva University Hospitals. Published in the Annals of Nuerology, abstract here: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122269076/abstract

  2. Re:A serious question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes, we do.

    I'm just coming up to 3 years post-op. I no-longer get a phantom penis when awake, but I sometimes have something I call "the hermaphrodite dream", where I have both a penis and vagina. The first few times, it messed with my head a bit, but now I'm kinda OK with it, and it only happens once or twice a year.