Scientists can alter people's perception of their bodies by playing with their sensory input, for example by using trick mirrors or touch. Now Lorimer Moseley of the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute in Sydney, Australia, and Peter Brugger of University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland show that the sensation of having impossible bodily forms can be generated using thought alone.
The team asked seven amputees who have a phantom arm to perform a wrist movement with the phantom limb that would be impossible with an actual wrist. Four were able to learn the movement, which induced a change in body image and made some previously easy movements of the phantom arm more difficult.
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Neurology: Impossible movements. Nature 462, 15 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/462015b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/462015b
