Fun with Science Club®


			Some people can still feel their missing limb. Beth Tyler 06.01.01 People who lose an arm or leg often still have feeling in the missing limb. People may feel pain and itching in their “phantom limb”. Six doctors in Canada hypothesized that people continue to feel the limb because the part of the brain that represented that limb continues functioning even after the loss of the limb. To test their hypothesis, the doctors compared a part of the brain called the thalamus in patients who experienced phantom limbs and patients who did not. They attached small instruments called electrodes to the patients' heads. These electrodes are capable of sending signals into the brain. The doctors had the electrodes send signals to the part of the thalamus that was related to a patient’s missing limb. In patients who experienced phantom limbs, the electrode signals resulted in pain and feeling in the phantom limb. In patients who didn’t experience phantom limbs, the electrode signals resulted only in feeling around the missing limb. These results supported the doctors’ hypothesis that phantom limbs result from continued brain signals to a limb even after it is gone.


			Davis, Karen D., Zelma H. T. Kiss, Lei Luo, Ronald R. Tasker, Andrea M. Lozan, and Jonatha O. Dostrovsky. 1998. Phantom sensations generated by thalamic microstimulation. Nature 391:385-387.