“Phantom limb” is a strange phenomenon that occurs in about 80% of all amputees. They experience sensations including warmth, itching, pressure and pain coming from a missing limb. Freaked out? Don’t be – science goggles will make everything better. Let’s take another look…

Science offers two explanations. It’s possible that the nerves area where the limb severed creates new connections to the spinal cord and continues to send signals to the brain as if the limb was still there.

The second possibility is that the brain is "hard-wired" to operate as if the body were fully intact - meaning the brain holds a blueprint of the body with all parts attached.

See – nothing to worry about! Ghouls and Nearly-Headless Nicks feature in another story…

Source: LiveScience

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