Researchers at the University of Oxford, England, are launching a three-year study with the Oxford Centre for Enablement (OCE) and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Center, Oxford, to examine changes in the brain following amputation of a hand or arm. Groups of non-amputees and those with congenital limb deficiency will also be invited to take part in the study in order to compare the organization of their brains with those of amputees. The project’s aim is to increase understanding of the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections in response to situations such as limb amputation or nervous system injury. According to Nuffield Orthopaedic, the project team hopes the study will lead to better rehabilitation techniques for amputees and better treatment of phantom limb pain.
David Henderson Slater, MD, rehabilitation consultant at the OCE, is the leading clinical investigator on the study. He said, “We are particularly interested in the relationship between brain re-organisation and phantom limb sensation or pain following amputation. Phantom limb pain…can be difficult to control or predict when it will strike and can be very debilitating.”
Researchers will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to take real-time images of the brain both in participants who have lost a hand and in those who are non-amputees. In some cases, participants about to undergo an amputation will be scanned before and after their amputation.
The three-year study is being led by Tamar Makin, MD, of the university’s Oxford Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB) in collaboration with the OCE. Makin explained, “Specific parts of the brain control different parts of the body. Our research will test what happens to parts of the brain controlling the arm and hand when the limb is missing. We are also interested to learn how the representation of the hand in the brain of intact participants is shaped by sensory and motor skills and learning.”
