Phantom Limb
The majority of people who lose a limb through accident or amputation continue to experience sensation in their missing body part, a phenomenon known as phantom limb.
A phantom limb is the sensation that an amputated or missing limb is still appended in its usual place.
In phantom limb phenomenon, amputees experience tactile sensations such as pain, itching, touch, and tension in appendages and limbs that have been amputated and now no longer exist.
The reason for the phantom limb phenomenon lies in the neural reorganization and mapping in the brain of adjacent areas that take over the areas that once controlled the amputated body parts.
These latent circuits allow for the expansion of an adjacent cortical area. For example, tactile stimulation to the index finger of a monkey would produce the perception of touch to an actually amputated adjacent finger. The brain itself is unaware of the origination of impulses and falsely registers these as originating from non-existing bodily areas.
In cases of phantom limb, the person is certainly aware of a missing limb or appendage. That is, they have access to visually based knowledge of this.
During the course of rehabilitation and adaptation, a person’s judgment and metacognition is at least partially altered as far as the amputation has altered gait, mobility, balance, writing skills, daily living skills, interpersonal interactions, and even self-perceptions.
Phantom limb pain and general stimulation often persists and cannot be treated by opiates or even further surgery to the neuromas at the point of entry into the spinal column. The sensory and perceptual mechanism persists in intellectual knowledge of this.
