User:Duransol/sandbox

User:SLS03/PhantomLimb

Editing Plan: We plan on adding a section on the neural basis of Phantom Limb Syndrome, as shown below. Including information about the pathways and regions associated with this syndrome and how they can be targeted in treatment. We also plan to remove any unnecessary or inaccurate information. In addition to this, we will expand the introduction section, which is currently very short and vague. We already have two sources from academic journals found on PubMed and will be including content from Ramachandran's book, he created the mirror box method as a treatment for this disorder. These changes should demystify the disorder and provide a scientific explanation for the disorder

Editing Plan Part 2: Our current plan is to clean up unnecessary and incorrect information within the entire article. We also plan to edit and publish the information below to expand the present introduction section. We believe that these edits will improve the overall article. The previous editing plan included too many revisions. We will not be adding information from Ramachandran's book as it is too ambitious of a goal.

Neural Basis of Phantom Limb Syndrome:

Pain, temperature, touch, and vibration are carried in the central nervous system via the anterolateral and spinothalamic tracts, carrying incoming sensory information and sending motor information. Incoming sensory information travels along the anterolateral pathway and arrives at the primary sensory cortex, located in the postcentral gyrus in the parietal lobe; also the location of the sensory homunculus. In phantom limb syndrome, there is sensory input indicating pain from a part of the body which is no longer existent- this phenomenon is still not fully understood, but there are several mechanisms which may be able to explain this phenomenon:

Repressed memories in phantom limbs could potentially explain the reason for existing sensations after amputation. Specifically, there have been several reports from patients of painful clenching spasms in the phantom hand with the feeling of their nails digging into their palms. The motor output is amplified due to the missing limb; therefore, the patient may experience the overflow of information as pain. The patient contains repressed memories from previous motor commands of clenching the hand and sensory information from digging their nails into their palm. These memories remain due to previous neural connections in the brain. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1692421/pdf/9854257.pdf