IUBio

When do nerves die?

K C Cheng kccheng at postoffice.idirect.com
Wed Jan 28 11:42:09 EST 1998


Andreas Stokke wrote:
> 
> If a portion of human flesh is removed from the rest of the body, will the
> nerves still transmit "signals" of sensation (e.g., when pricking the skin
> with a needle)? What will this "signal" do, when it meets the "gap", where
> the nerves have been cut?
> 
> Please excuse my non-scientific wordings, I am not an expert on this field,
> which is why I am asking questions in order to learn more :-)
> --
> Andreas Stokke
> stokke at datsmail.dk
> http://www.geocities.com/athens/delphi/1980
> Student of the
> Department of Comparative Literature
> University of Copenhagen, Denmark
When a part of the body is lost,  like in the loss of a limb,  there
will be no more neural signals arising from that lost body part.  
However, that part of the brain in control of that bodily  part is not
lost and   still retains the memory of it, thereby letting the person 
recall memories of the sensations from that lost bodily part before the
latter's loss.   This explains such phenomenon as  "phantom pain"  of a
lost limb, etc.  

kc cheng, neural website at  http://webhome.idirect.com/~kccheng
-- 
kccheng:*ø¬˜˜˜˜˜•ªºß



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