He felt that his phantom hand was clenched so tightly, he could feel his fingernails digging into his phantom palm. One of Ramachandran's patients complained that he was suffering from an excruciating cramping in his phantom arm. And for others, the phantom limb feels not only present, but also quite painful. In some cases, a person may only feel it immediately after the loss. In 1872, the experience was given its modern name when Silas Weir Mitchell, another military surgeon, coined the term "phantom limb." He based it on his experiences at Philadelphia's "Stump Hospital" during the Civil War.Īccording to Ramachandran, the majority of those who lose a limb experience some impression that the limb is still present. The French military surgeon Ambroise Pare, working in the mid-1500s, is believed to have been the first to describe this sensation.
In one breakthrough example, Ramachandran, a researcher at the University of California, San Diego, devised a seemingly simple experiment to explore a puzzle that has confounded doctors since at least the 16th century: the sensation that a ghostly limb remains after the amputation of a body part. Ramachandran's innovative studies plumb many of the uncharted depths in our understanding of how our bodies and our brains relate to each other, often revealing unexpectedly complex processes for recognizing our physical selves. We've all heard the expression "I know it like the back of my hand." But just how well do we really understand our relationship to our hands, our legs, or any of our other various body parts?ĭr. A WHAT Lives Inside My Brain? March 18, 2009
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