How Phantom Shifts (Possibly) Happen

Randomly opened my old neuroscience textbook because a friend wanted to borrow it, and landed my eyes on phantom limbs!

Now keep in mind the researched concept is about amputated humans, not alterhumans, however, it mentions a fascinating fact: These phantom sensations are acknowledged to exist even for some humans born without limbs. Meaning, even if your physical body doesn't develop the limb, your brain can still store its representation, and proactively contributes to your perception of your body.

I'd love to see a screening of an alterhuman brain because it makes me wonder, what activates in the brain during phantom shifts? Do we have "additional nodes" in the somatosensory/motor cortex for extra limbs? Considering that humans still have a tail bone, it wouldn't sound crazy that the brain sometimes assigns it a full tail...

Thoughts?

You might find this paper discussing the Body Schema interesting: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10605253/ It's rather long, but it does go into phantom limbs.

From what I remember it noted that the brain didn't necessarily reorganize after the loss of a limb, and continued to "expect" signals from it. I think this may have implications for those of us with past lives if what is carried into the present results in the formation of those circuits during childhood development.

Also, this paper discusses the possible mechanisms behind phantom pain: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pain-research/articles/10.3389/fpain.2025.1419762/full

(2025-09-03 23:06)Cygnus Wrote:  You might find this paper discussing the Body Schema interesting: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10605253/ It's rather long, but it does go into phantom limbs.

From what I remember it noted that the brain didn't necessarily reorganize after the loss of a limb, and continued to "expect" signals from it. I think this may have implications for those of us with past lives if what is carried into the present results in the formation of those circuits during childhood development.

Also, this paper discusses the possible mechanisms behind phantom pain: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pain-research/articles/10.3389/fpain.2025.1419762/full

Thank you, I'm gonna give them both a read!!