Phantom limbs: The body in mind

2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter W. Halligan
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Phantom Limbs

Phantom Limbs

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Gaukroger
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Limbic System ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Sensory Systems ◽  
The Body ◽  
Philosophical Problem ◽  
Nerve Endings ◽  
Spinal Chord ◽  
Phantom Limbs ◽  
The Brain

Phantom limbs pose a philosophical problem about the location of pains. The work of Descartes first used them to make a philosophical point about the brain in relation to the body. They have traditionally been thought of as being due to nerve endings on the pathway to the original limb being activated. However, it was subsequently discovered that the phenomenon occurs even when the spinal chord is severed, suggesting that it is rather a question of brain activity, part of a neurosignature through which the brain indicates the body is one’s own. More recent resarch suggests involvement not only of the sensory systems but also the parietal cortex and the limbic system, which is concerned with emotion and motivation.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frédérique de Vignemont
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Bodily Awareness ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Phantom Limbs ◽  
Flow Of Information

The embodied approach claims to return the mind to the body. This book returns the body to the mind. Let us leave aside what the body can do for cognition and focus on what it feels like to have a body. We constantly receive a flow of information about it, and yet the phenomenology of bodily awareness is relatively limited. It seems at first sight reducible to the “feeling of the same old body always there” or to a mere “feeling of warmth and intimacy” (James, 1890, p. 242). But when our body becomes less familiar we can grasp the many ways our body can appear to us. In particular, the experience of phantom limbs in amputees best brings bodily awareness into the limelight. The chapter describes a series of puzzling results, which raise fundamental questions about how we experience our body.

The Body Image of the Aviator

1968 ◽  
Vol 114 (507) ◽  
pp. 233-237
Author(s):  
G. J. Tucker ◽  
R. F. Reinhardt ◽  
N. B. Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Motor Activity ◽  
Spatial Model ◽  
Ego Identity ◽  
The Body ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Spatial Image ◽  
Sociological Factors ◽  
Phantom Limbs ◽  
Self System

The concept of the ‘body image’ rests on a broad foundation of neurological and psychological observations. Neurological observations of phantom limbs, agnosias, apraxias, and similar phenomena led to an initial formulation of the body image as a postural, spatial image of the body (2, 6). Schilder greatly expanded the concept by delineating the importance of libidinal (instinctual) and sociological factors in the make-up of the body image (7). Current psychiatric usage has (perhaps too loosely) equated the term body image with phrases such as 'self system’, 'self concept’, ‘ego identity’, etc. (8). The importance of the body image as a postural or spatial model, a ‘base of operations' from which a person extends himself into space, with its implications for movement and motor activity, is often overlooked but vividly evident in many endeavours, particularly aviation.

The Body Map Theory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frédérique de Vignemont
Keyword(s):  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Bodily Experiences ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Bodily Sensations ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Body Map ◽  
Phantom Limbs

How do bodily experiences get a rich spatial content on the basis of the limited information carried by bodily senses? This chapter argues that one needs a map of the body, which represents its enduring properties (i.e. configuration and dimensions). This representation can be decoupled from the biological body leading the subject to experience sensations not only in phantom limbs but also in tools that bear little visual resemblance with the body. Does it entail that there is almost no limit to the malleability of the body map? Or that bodily sensations can be felt even beyond the apparent boundaries of the body, in peripersonal space, and possibly even farther? This chapter examines a series of cases that may cast doubt on the role of the body map for the localization of bodily sensations.

PHANTOM LIMBS AND THE BODY SCHEMA

1975 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 286
Author(s):  
P. R. BROMAGE ◽  
R. MELZACK
Keyword(s):  
Body Schema ◽  
The Body ◽  
Phantom Limbs

scholarly journals Capturing the Perceived Phantom Limb through Virtual Reality

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Rogers ◽  
Jonathan Lau ◽  
Denver Huynh ◽  
Steven Albertson ◽  
James Beem ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
3D Visualization ◽  
Phantom Limb Pain ◽  
The Body ◽  
Phantom Limb ◽  
Input Device ◽  
Leap Motion ◽  
3D Animation ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
Phantom Limbs ◽  
Animation Software

Phantom limb is the sensation amputees may feel when the missing limb is still attached to the body and is still moving as it would if it still existed. Despite there being between 50 and 80% of amputees who report neuropathic pain, also known as phantom limb pain (PLP), there is still little understanding of why PLP occurs. There are no fully effective long-term treatments available. One of the struggles with PLP is the difficulty for amputees to describe the sensations of their phantom limbs. The sensations may be of a limb that is in a position that is impossible for a normal limb to attain. The goal of this project was to treat those with PLP by developing a system to communicate the sensations those with PLP were experiencing accurately and easily through various hand positions using a model arm with a user friendly interface. The system was developed with Maya 3D animation software, the Leap Motion input device, and the Unity game engine. The 3D modeled arm was designed to mimic the phantom sensation being able to go beyond normal joint extensions of regular arms. The purpose in doing so was to obtain a true 3D visualization of the phantom limb.

Comparison of Phantoms and Atavistic Body Schema Experiences in a Schizophrenic: A Contribution to the Study of Hallucinations

1964 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 695-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anneliese A. Pontius
Keyword(s):  
Body Schema ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Structural Analogy ◽  
Phantom Limbs ◽  
Phantom Head

Attention is drawn to a neglected type of phantom experience, in which phantom movements are added to the experience of the body schema without an associated phantom body part. Comparison of such phantom movements in an adult schizophrenic with phantoms of body parts reveals atavistic-regressive features in both phenomena. The phantom head-face movements of this schizophrenic adult permit a structural analogy to the rooting reflex as well as to other rotation reflexes. Phantom limbs may assume phylogenetically old forms too. Such atavistic features are apparently based on regressively reactivated phylogenetically inborn patterns of experiences, which are at least beyond those of normal infancy. A similar reactivation of atavistic patterns may occur in other types of hallucinations too.

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