Stable cortical body maps before and after arm amputation

Hunter R Schone; Roni O Maimon-Mor; Mathew Kollamkulam; Malgorzata A Szymanska; Craig Gerrand; Alexander Woollard; Norbert V Kang; Chris I Baker; Tamar R Makin

doi:10.1038/s41593-025-02037-7

Stable cortical body maps before and after arm amputation

Nat Neurosci. 2025 Oct;28(10):2015-2021. doi: 10.1038/s41593-025-02037-7. Epub 2025 Aug 21.

Authors

Hunter R Schone^{1

2

3

4}, Roni O Maimon-Mor^{5

6

7}, Mathew Kollamkulam^{5

8}, Malgorzata A Szymanska⁹, Craig Gerrand¹⁰, Alexander Woollard¹¹, Norbert V Kang¹¹, Chris I Baker¹², Tamar R Makin^{13

14

15}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK. schonehunter@gmail.com.
² Laboratory of Brain & Cognition, National Institutes of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. schonehunter@gmail.com.
³ Rehab Neural Engineering Labs, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. schonehunter@gmail.com.
⁴ Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. schonehunter@gmail.com.
⁵ Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.
⁶ Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, UK.
⁷ UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London, UK.
⁸ Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
⁹ MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
¹⁰ Department of Orthopaedic Oncology, Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust, Stanmore, UK.
¹¹ Plastic Surgery Department, Royal Free Hospital NHS Trust, London, UK.
¹² Laboratory of Brain & Cognition, National Institutes of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
¹³ Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK. tamar.makin@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk.
¹⁴ MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. tamar.makin@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk.
¹⁵ Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, UK. tamar.makin@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk.

Abstract

The adult brain's capacity for cortical reorganization remains debated. Using longitudinal neuroimaging in three adults, followed before and up to 5 years after arm amputation, we compared cortical activity elicited by movement of the hand (before amputation) versus phantom hand (after amputation) and lips (before and after amputation). We observed stable cortical representations of both hand and lips in primary sensorimotor regions. By directly quantifying activity changes across amputation, we demonstrate that amputation does not trigger large-scale cortical reorganization.

MeSH terms

Adult
Amputation, Surgical*
Arm* / surgery
Brain Mapping*
Cerebral Cortex* / physiology
Female
Hand
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Middle Aged
Phantom Limb* / physiopathology

Abstract

MeSH terms

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