Perceptual Research - SONA Replacement

Mapping the Invisible Hand: A Body Model of a Phantom Limb

This was a study where phantom limbs were examined on a thirty-eight year old woman who was born without a left arm.  The experimenter used a baton to mark spatial locations of components of her right hand and of her phantom left hand. The researchers found that she perceived her “left hand” to be different than her right. She underestimated finger length and overestimated her hand width s in perception of her real hand. Her distorted perceptions of her phantom left hand showed the differences in amount of somatosensory cortex regulated to ach hand component.  This study indicates that phantom limbs reflect the organization of the somatosensory cortex and are not based on the generalizations of other matching limbs. The woman did not believe that her phantom left hand was the exact same as her right hand.

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/23/7/740.full