Phantom Limbs and Mirror Therapy: Brain Plasticity and Future Treatment for Brain Disorders and Injuries

Abstract

Every thirty seconds globally, a person loses his or her arm or leg due to amputation. Annually, more than one million people around the world undergo amputation surgery. In the United States alone, 185,000 people lose their limbs due to this type of surgery each year. Amputation may cause many problems in patients' daily lives since they have lost one or more of their limbs, which means that their motor ability will be significantly reduced. Interestingly, after the amputation, many patients report that they can still feel their amputated limb, which, of course, does not exist physically.