their missing limbs are still present. Now, a small new study
Phantom limb syndrome is an eerie condition, in which amputees have the physically painful sensation that
has shown that people can twist those ghostly limbs in anatomically impossible ways, while still feeling that the limb is real and present. In essence, each amputee's brain reshaped his understanding of where his body was.The findings show that the brain can alter how we perceive our bodies all by itself, without input from our senses [Reuters].
Researchers had patients with "vivid phantoms" try to move their wrists in a physically impossible way—a 360 degree spin of the wrist around the long axis of the forearm—and found that 4 of the 7 patients could move their wrists this way. Some patients that were able to move their wrists later reported that their phantom hands were now more difficult to move from side to ...
