@ se7en: P@!N
For pain, plasticity can be a curse. "Phantom pain" exists in 95% of amputees. The haunting pains are disturbing and torturing because the pains without return address. Normal or "acute" pain alerts us to injury or disease by sending a signal to the brain. Besides, there is "neuropathic pain" which is from the damage nerves. In an amputee's brain, the magnetoencephalography(MEG) shows the hand and brain maps blurred together. So, the phantom hand feels what the face felt. The face map utilises the hand map because of the "use it or lose it" rule and localisation(the hand is next to the face).
The phantom arm is fixed into previous experiences. The motor center keeps firing commands and got no feedback. Ramachandran, a neurologist magician makes a mirror box to "resurrect" the amputation or stroke. He applies illusion to trick the brain to see and think as everything is fine. According to Ramachandra, pain, like the body image, is created by the brain and projected onto the body. The brain can close a gate and block the pain signal by releasing endorphins, the narcotics made by the body to quell pain.
Technically, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation(TENS) uses electric current to stimulate neurons that inhabit pain, helping in effect to close the "pain" gate. The pain system includes motor components. We guard and prevent any movement around the injury from aggravating the wound.
Great science can be done with elegant simplicity
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