'Phantom Limbs' May Not Be What We Thought, Surprising Study Finds

Inside every human brain lies a detailed map of the body, with different regions dedicated to different body parts – the hands, lips, feet and more. But what happens to this map when a body part is removed?

For decades, scientists believed that when a body part is amputated, the brain's body map dramatically reorganises itself, with neighbouring body parts taking over the area once represented by the missing limb.

This idea of large-scale brain reorganisation became a central pillar of what neuroscientists call adult brain plasticity: the ability of the brain to change its structure and function in response to injuries, new experiences or training.

Our new study, published in Nature Neuroscience , shows the opposite is true: the brain's body map remains strikingly stable, even yea