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phantom limb

·August 21, 2025·5 min read

Brain Retains Lost Limb’s Control Map, Defying Plasticity Theories

A groundbreaking study challenges decades of neuroscience by showing that the brain retains its map of a lost limb long after amputation. Using functional MRI scans taken before and after surgery, researchers found little change in cortical activity, even when participants attempted to move phantom fingers.

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·December 15, 2023·5 min read

Spinal Cord Stimulation Alleviates Phantom Limb Pain in Amputees

Researchers made a significant breakthrough in treating phantom limb pain in lower-limb amputees. Their study demonstrates how spinal cord stimulation, triggered by pressure sensors on a prosthetic foot, can restore sensation in the missing foot and significantly reduce phantom limb pain.

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·July 27, 2023·8 min read

Tiny Thermoelectric Device Restores Thermal Perception in Phantom Limb

Researchers created a revolutionary tiny and efficient thermoelectric device, which can help amputees feel temperature with their phantom limbs. Known as the wearable thin-film thermoelectric cooler (TFTEC), this device is lightweight, incredibly fast, and energy-efficient, potentially revolutionizing applications such as prosthetics, augmented reality haptics, and thermally-modulated therapeutics.

This shows a glowing, blue, transparent hand.

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·May 21, 2023·6 min read

Amputees Sense Temperature in Missing Limbs

A new study reveals amputees can feel temperature in their phantom limbs using thermal electrodes placed on their residual arms. Participants in the study reported feeling heat or cold, and discerning material types, such as copper, plastic, or glass.

This shows electrodes attached to an arm

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·February 15, 2021·6 min read

New Surgery May Enable Better Control of Prosthetic Limbs

Reconnecting muscle pairs during surgery following amputation provides patients more sensory feedback from the limb, researchers report.

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·July 17, 2020·4 min read

Phantom-Limb Pain Reduced Through Brain Power

Three days of training with brain-computer interface technology reduced phantom limb pain. Patients reported a 30% reduction in pain after one session, and the effect lasted up to five days after training was complete.

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·February 22, 2019·4 min read

Phantom Limb Sensation Explained

A new study reveals functional changes occur among sensitive and motor brain regions following amputation. The findings shed new light on why some people feel phantom limb sensations following the loss of a limb.

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·February 5, 2019·4 min read

Brain Hand Map is Maintained in Amputees with and Without Phantom Limb Sensations

A new MRI study reveals the brain retains neural 'fingerprints' of a missing hand, decades after amputation and regardless of whether the person experiences phantom limb sensations.

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·December 31, 2018·4 min read

Rerouting Nerves During Amputation Reduces Phantom Limb Pain Before it Starts

Researchers report using primary targeted muscle reinnervation during amputation helps to reduce, and in some cases, prevent phantom limb and stump pain in patients.

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·August 13, 2018·5 min read

Amputees Feel as Though Their Prosthetic Limb Belongs to Their Own Body

A new study reports amputees often feel as though their prosthetic limb is part of their body.

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·June 20, 2018·6 min read

New ‘E-Dermis’ Brings Sense of Touch, Pain to Prosthetic Hands

Researchers have developed a new electronic skin that can allow amputees to perceive touch sensations via their prosthesis. The technology, dubbed e-dermis, can recreate the sense of touch and pain by sensing stimuli and relaying impulses back to peripheral nerves.

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·October 27, 2017·7 min read

Advanced Artificial Limbs Mapped in the Brain

Following targeted motor and sensory reinnervation, a procedure that reroutes residual limb nerves to intact muscles and skin in amputees, the brain remaps both motor and sensory pathways. Additionally, researchers note, TMSR may help counteract poorly adapted cortical plasticity following amputation.