Woman with ‘a phantom third arm’

Oh my God, I forgot to tell you guys about animals. I spent many years in Borneo and Sumatra. People have monkeys like we have cats and dogs.

If I approach a monkey, the first thing they do is reach for my left hand and examine the missing half of my thumb.

I mean, they are totally engrossed with it. They handle the stump very gently and it looks like they are trying to touch and feel the air where my thumb would be. It's like they can see my thumb's ghost.

And it must really shine because of the way monkeys go straight to it.

Originally posted by Tour18
Oh my God, I forgot to tell you guys about animals. I spent many years in Borneo and Sumatra. People have monkeys like we have cats and dogs.

If I approach a monkey, the first thing they do is reach for my left hand and examine the missing half of my thumb.

I mean, they are totally engrossed with it. They handle the stump very gently and it looks like they are trying to touch and feel the air where my thumb would be. It's like they can see my thumb's ghost.

And it must really shine because of the way monkeys go straight to it.

Now THAT is interesting....
And they're gentle?

Do they do anything besides examine it?

Wow....... that's just astonishing. This could very well lead to science recognizing the aura (aka our energy) as something that is not paranormal.



[edit on 9-4-2009 by sliceNodice]

reply to post by silo13


Fascinating. We definitely are beginners when it comes to brain studies and stuff.
Great post, S and F

Originally posted by UmbraSumus
reply to post by silo13

 

Its a fascinating thought that the entire left side of the body skin surface is mapped onto a vertical strip of cortex , the somatosensory cortex , on the right side of the brain and vice versa .

When the somatosensory region associated with a limb, no longer receives sensory input (severed limb ) ...... often the adjacent area which "represents" the face , moves into the vacated space .

The man featured in this Documentary by Neuroscientist Ramachandran, could feel his phantom thumb , when he ran a razor over a particular part of his face.

Until now ~ scientist did not believe that the brain retained such plasticity into maturity.





The whole documentary is worth a watch.
Covering Phantom limbs /Anosognosia / Temporal lobe seizures and religious experience /Capgras syndrome /Blind sight .
Phantoms In The Brain ( Episode 1 )


[edit on 8-4-2009 by UmbraSumus]

[edit on 8-4-2009 by UmbraSumus]

Cool that you posted that because when I had my surgery for my torn ACL,MCL, cartelige in my right knee from football, The scar where the cut /incision they made to perform the surgery.

When I touch it, I dont' feel it at the place I touch it, as it is kind of numb there, but rather I feel it about 5 inches lower on my leg.

So When I scratch that scar I feel it on a differen't part of my leg as If I was touching the other part of my leg.

Almost forgot about it because it's been so long since I've done it, Let me see if it still works............YEP ! still does it

I never thought it was that weird and really this is a bit different than a phantom limb but I would guess they are related somehow.

Originally posted by TheAmused
People who swear 10000000% they see stuff and feel stuff that is not there are mental.
THe lady needs mental help i think

dillusions

I would tend to think that every single person on this site would disagree with your heartless observation of these people.

It's pretty arrogant to think you know a situation having never experienced it your self.

Are you a doctor in the field of mental illness?

Or are you just trying to be " cool " ?

Well the title makes it sound like she has two arms and has a phantom third... but really the phantom arm is one she already lost? So she has one good arm and one phantom arm?

Funny enough that's what I thought when I *clicked* on the article the first time.
I'd like to change it but I'm pretty stuck on using the original article heading, I don't change someone else's work, even in the heading.

Sorry for the confusion it got me too.

peace

[edit on 10-4-2009 by silo13]

reply to post by Tour18

Oh my God, I forgot to tell you guys about animals. I spent many years in Borneo and Sumatra. People have monkeys like we have cats and dogs.

If I approach a monkey, the first thing they do is reach for my left hand and examine the missing half of my thumb.

I mean, they are totally engrossed with it. They handle the stump very gently and it looks like they are trying to touch and feel the air where my thumb would be. It's like they can see my thumb's ghost.

And it must really shine because of the way monkeys go straight to it.

Holy Crow!

That is just wayyyyyy too cool.
I'd love to hear if there's been any research along the lines of animals and phantom limbs?

*Runs off to a search engine to see*...

peace

Double cool post - thanks again!