Phantom Limb Pain
Phantom limb pain (PLP) is a complex phenomenon that includes a wide variety of symptoms ranging from tingling and itching to burning and aching. During the past twenty years researchers have advanced a number of theories to explain phantom limb pain. Three of the most prominent are: 1) maladaptive changes in the primary sensory cortex after amputation (maladaptive plasticity), 2) a conflict between the signals received from the amputated limb (proprioception) and the information provided by vision that serves to send motor commands to the missing limb, 3) vivid limb position memories that emerge after amputation.
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Famous quotes containing the words phantom, limb and/or pain:
“She was a phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight;
A lovely apparition, sent
To be a moment’s ornament;”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
“... our great-grandmothers were prudes. The reason why they talked so much about their souls, I fancy, is that there was hardly a limb or a feature of the human body that they thought it proper to mention.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)
“You can’t have operations without screams. Pain and the knife—they’re inseparable.”
—Jean Scott Rogers. Robert Day. Mr. Blount (Frank Pettingell)