As you know, many people, after amputation of their limbs, suffer from phantom pain, and for many years. Why? Where does this pain come from if the limb is gone? Scientists for hundreds of years did not know the cause of these pains and, accordingly, how to rid people of them. The reason lies in the fact that the brain of these people refuses to recognize the fait accompli of the loss of a limb, keeping the chains of neurons responsible for the functioning of the limb! In other words, the cause of the phantom pain is "a well-established representation of an amputated limb."
Conducted such an experiment. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the researchers examined the brain activity of people with an amputated arm, two arms, and people who were born with only one arm. Each of the participants was asked to make movements with their arms, legs, lips. And volunteers who experienced phantom pain were told to perform movements using their phantom limb. At the same time, scientists observed special areas in the motor cortex associated with hand movement.
As a result, it turned out that the activity of the brain in this area in people with phantom pain did not differ from people with healthy limbs. It was a real surprise, Makin says: "If we take a person who suffers from phantom pain, then his brain activity is no different from yours."
Scientists conclude that the motor center, which is responsible for the movement of the limb, could not be reconstructed, and until now it contains information about the existence of the limb, so it tries to control the phantom limb.