Some people still feel pain from amputated limbs, “phantom pain”, why is that?
“Phantom pain” occurs in a portion of a body part ( usually a limb ) which is no longer present ( amputated for various reasons ).The portion of the brain that received signals from the missing part and all the wiring in the spinal cord and brain that transmitted the information, however, are still intact. For reasons that are not understood the wiring that is still present in the remaining limb ( spinal cord and or brain ) sends off messages which are interpreted by the brain as pain and sometimes the individual can tell you the normal or abnormal position that they “sense” that the missing limb is in. Thus the word “Phantom”. This is a difficult type of pain to control but treatments are available.
