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Somatosensation

Somatosensation

The somatosensory system relays sensory information from the skin, mucous membranes, limbs, and joints. Somatosensation is more familiarly known as the sense of touch. A typical somatosensory pathway includes three types of long neurons: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary neurons have cell bodies located near the spinal cord in groups of neurons called dorsal root ganglia. The sensory neurons of ganglia innervate designated areas of skin called dermatomes.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 10, 2025

Compensatory Limb Use and Behavioral Assessment of Motor Skill Learning Following Sensorimotor Cortex Injury in a Mouse Model of Ischemic Stroke

Compensatory Limb Use and Behavioral Assessment of Motor Skill Learning Following Sensorimotor Cortex Injury in a Mouse Model of Ischemic Stroke

Published on: July 10, 2014

Stable cortical body maps before and after arm amputation.

Hunter R Schone^1,2,3,4, Roni O Maimon-Mor^5,6,7, Mathew Kollamkulam^5,8

¹Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK. schonehunter@gmail.com.

Nature Neuroscience

|August 21, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Adult brain plasticity is debated. This study found stable brain maps for hands and lips even 5 years after arm amputation, showing large-scale cortical reorganization does not occur.

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Last Updated: Sep 10, 2025

Compensatory Limb Use and Behavioral Assessment of Motor Skill Learning Following Sensorimotor Cortex Injury in a Mouse Model of Ischemic Stroke

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Controlled Cortical Impact Model of Mouse Brain Injury with Therapeutic Transplantation of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Neural Cells

Controlled Cortical Impact Model of Mouse Brain Injury with Therapeutic Transplantation of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Neural Cells

Published on: July 10, 2019

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Neuroimaging
Brain Plasticity

Background:

The adult brain's ability to reorganize (cortical plasticity) after injury, like amputation, is not fully understood.
Previous research offers conflicting evidence on the extent of brain reorganization following limb loss.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate cortical reorganization in adults after arm amputation.
To compare brain activity patterns for hand and lip movements before and long-term after amputation.

Main Methods:

Longitudinal neuroimaging (fMRI or similar) was used.
Three adult participants were scanned before and up to 5 years after arm amputation.
Cortical activity was measured during attempted movements of the intact hand/phantom hand and lips.

Main Results:

Cortical representations for both the hand and lips remained stable in primary sensorimotor areas.
Direct quantification of activity changes confirmed no significant large-scale cortical reorganization.
Brain activity patterns associated with phantom limb and lip movements were consistent over time.

Conclusions:

Adult brains may exhibit remarkable stability in cortical representations despite major changes like arm amputation.
Large-scale cortical reorganization is not a necessary consequence of arm amputation in adults.
Sensorimotor cortical maps demonstrate resilience and stability over extended periods post-amputation.