Phantom Limbs

A phantom limb is a strange phenomenon in which a person feels pain in a limb that they no longer have. For example, someone who had a leg amputated after it was badly mangled in a car accident may still feel sharp pains that seem to come from the location where the leg once was. Ramachandran studied phantom limbs for years and was able to determine that phantom limbs occur when certain neurons and nerves fire in the same pattern in which they fired when the limb was physically present and experiencing painful stimuli. Phantom limbs can often be relieved through the use of mirrors.