'Non-amputees can also feel phantom limbs'
'Non-amputees can also feel phantom limbs'
Swedish researchers have discovered that people with both their hands and arms can experience the sensation of having "phantom limbs", a phenomenon thought to be only felt by amputees imagining that their missing limb was still present.
"Our results show that the sight of a physical hand is remarkably unimportant to the brain for creating the experience of one's physical self," said the lead author of the study, Arvid Guterstam of Sweden's prestigious Karolinska Institute.
Phantom limbs can be distressing and painful for amputees, and drugs cannot help as the sensation is essentially a trick of the brain, which imagines the existence of a limb that is not there.
Guterstam said his team hoped the results of their study would help lead to future research on amputees' phantom pain.
http://www.thelocal.se/47284/20130411/#.UWbiQzf4KSo