Practice question · Multiple choice
After a limb is amputated, some patients feel touch on the face as though it were coming from the missing hand. What does that reveal about how cortical maps are organised?
Hints
- Look at where the face and the hand sit on the cortical map relative to each other.
- The hand region stops receiving input. What happens to cortex that has nothing to do?
Show the answer
C. That the map is maintained by use and reorganises without it.
Why
Face and hand are neighbours on the somatosensory strip, and when the hand stops sending signals its territory does not fall silent, the face representation expands into it, so face touch activates cortex the brain still reads as hand. Ramachandran mapped points on patients' faces that reliably produced sensation in specific missing fingers.
Practise Neuroplasticity
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More questions on Neuroplasticity
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