Knowra Phantom limb Phantom limb Phantom limb is the vivid sensation that an amputated or missing body part remains present. It can include movement, posture, touch, temperature, or pain.
Neuropathic pain : Pain caused by a lesion or disease affecting the somatosensory nervous system. Phantom limb pain is a neuropathic pain that arises without the limb's tissues.
Body schema : The brain's largely unconscious representation of the body's shape, posture, and possible movements. A persistent body schema can include a limb that is no longer physically present.
Phantom limb pain : Pain perceived in a limb that has been amputated or is otherwise absent. Pain is one possible, often distressing, form of phantom limb sensation.
Residual limb pain : Pain felt in the remaining portion of an amputated limb. It is located in existing tissue, unlike pain perceived in the missing limb.
Somatosensory cortex : The brain region that processes sensations such as touch, temperature, and body position. Its body-part maps can remain active and reorganize after amputation.
Proprioception : The sense of the body's position and movement, produced by signals from muscles, joints, and other sources. Phantom limbs may seem to have a specific posture or to move.
Phantom eye syndrome : Visual or other sensations attributed to an eye that has been removed. It shows that phantom experiences can follow loss of body parts beyond limbs.
Referred pain : Pain perceived at a location different from its actual source. It can resemble phantom pain, but the perceived body part is not necessarily absent.
Cortical remapping : Reorganization of connections or representations in the brain's cortex after altered input or injury. It was proposed to explain sensations linked to neighboring body areas after amputation.
Somatic sensation : Sensations arising from the body, including touch, temperature, pain, and position. Phantom experiences are sensations attributed to a missing body part.
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