[[Category:Plasticity Symposium]]

----

== Cross-Modal Plasticity Underpins Clinical Study Language Recovery after Cochlear Implantation ==

In this study the cochlear implants restored hearing to the deaf participants by stimulating the auditory nerve with sixteen electrodes. Cochlear patients must work hard to hear, mainly because their sound signal is usually deteriorated. After the procedure the patients take a while to get accustomed to their new hearing devices. In the time after their implant, patients must rely on lipreading in order to understand what they are hearing because their implant is unable to discriminate similar sounding words (i. e. duck/buck). Therefore, after a period of time in which the patient is lipreading to comprehend, the visual cortex begins to activate when patients listen, even in purely auditory tasks (eyes closed). The amount of activity in the visual cortex was dependent on the amount of time the patient had their implant. The longer the time, the greater the amount of visual cortex activity when listening.

== Links ==

[http://blackboard.rollins.edu/courses/1/10301.PSY324.1.200801/content/_175427_1/Giraud_2001_Human_cochlear_implant_Neuron.pdf Link to the article by Giraud et al.]

[http://www.pbs.org/saf/1205/features/Interactive/intro1.htm WHAT IT'S LIKE TO HEAR WITH A COCHLEAR IMPLANT]

[http://www.pbs.org/wnet/soundandfury/index.html Background info on cochlear implants]
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[[Image:Implant_works.jpg

AlecTroeger — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:17:36 GMT

AlecTroeger: /* Treatment */

[[Category:Neuropsychological syndromes]]
Phantom limb syndrome causes a phantom sensation related to an individual's amputated or missing limbs. Since it does occur in people born without limbs, it is suggested that people are born with inherent wiring with regard to the sensations felt in the limbs of the body. The afflicted individual feels as though the missing limb is still a part of his body. It feels as though it is moving appropriately with the rest of the person's body, despite the fact that the limb itself is clearly nonexistent. It is believed that the syndrome is caused by an attempt by the brain to reorganize the sensory information that has been disrupted by the amputation.

Phantom limb syndrome was first diagnosed in the 16th Century by French military surgeon Ambroise Pare. He noted that amputees would report severe pain in their missing limbs.
[Image http://bja.oxfordjournals.org/content/vol87/issue1/images/medium/aee325f2.gif]
== Phantom Limb Pain ==

Phantom limb pain is, as the name clearly suggests, the common painful sensations felt in the nonexistent limb. However, such pain can also occur when limbs are fully intact; it can be present in individual's who have undergone some sort of injury - spinal cord or peripheral nerve injuries - in which the brain has been disconnected from the body.

The pain felt can be described as burning, aching, or as if the hand is being crushed; this is not a definitive list but a sampling of descriptions as the pain seems to vary among the afflicted. People have described it as being excruciating. Some even say that it feels as though their hand painfully making a fist so hard that they can feel their fingernails digging into their skin.

Unfortunately, no singular cause has been discovered for phantom limb syndrome. It could be caused by damaged nerve endings that reform oddly and, as a result, change the way in which they are connected to the central nervous system. Altered neural activity in the brain has also been blamed for phantom limb pain. Researchers have even proposed that the level of stress and number of personal problems a person has can increase the chances of phantom limb pain expressing itself.

== Treatment ==

As mentioned, it is believed that the disorder of sensory information that occurs after an amputation phantom limbs. Consequently, certain treatments that attempt to reconstruct a coherent body image are available.

Artificial limbs have helped to alleviate the pain because they, in a way, allow the brain to make sense of the interrupted neural information it receives from the phantom limb.

Mirror box techniques, in which the patient puts the amputated into a box and sees a reflection of the existing hand where their other hand would be, has been shown to be an effective way to reduce and even eliminate phantom limb pain. By unclenching the fist the person sees in the mirror, the person's brain is seemingly tricked into reorganizing the sensory input. Many patients report a progressive telescoping of the limb; this telescoping is represented by the picture shown above.

[Image http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd49/Orcas1250/mirrorbox2-1.jpg]

== References ==

[http://www.vanderbilt.edu/News/news/apr00/nr26.html Neuronal Growth in the Brain May Explain Phantom Limb Syndrome]

[http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/pain/microsite/medicine2.html PAIN]

[http://hubel.sfasu.edu/courseinfo/SL98/phantom4.html Helping Phantom Limb Pain]

[http://bja.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/87/1/107 British Journal of Anaesthesia]

== Extra Links ==

[http://mindbluff.com/phantom.htm Create a Fake Phantom Limb]

AlecTroeger — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:19:03 GMT

AlecTroeger:

Phantom limbs

AlecTroeger — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:17:38 GMT

AlecTroeger:

[[Category:Neuropsychological syndromes]]
Phantom limb syndrome causes a phantom sensation related to an individualâ��s amputated or missing limbs. Since it does occur in people born without limbs, it is suggested that people are born with inherent wiring with regard to the sensations felt in the limbs of the body. The afflicted individual feels as though the missing limb is still a part of his body. It feels as though it is moving appropriately with the rest of the personâ��s body, despite the fact that the limb itself is clearly nonexistent. It is believed that the syndrome is caused by an attempt by the brain to reorganize the sensory information that has been disrupted by the amputation.

Phantom limb syndrome was first diagnosed in the 16th Century by French military surgeon Ambroise ParÃ©. He noted that amputees would report severe pain in their missing limbs.
[Image http://bja.oxfordjournals.org/content/vol87/issue1/images/medium/aee325f2.gif]
== Phantom Limb Pain ==

Phantom limb pain is, as the name clearly suggests, the common painful sensations felt in the nonexistent limb. However, such pain can also occur when limbs are fully intact; it can be present in individualâ��s who have undergone some sort of injury â�� spinal cord or peripheral nerve injuries â�� in which the brain has been disconnected from the body.

The pain felt can be described as burning, aching, or as if the hand is being crushed; this is not a definitive list but a sampling of descriptions as the pain seems to vary among the afflicted. People have described it as being excruciating.

Unfortunately, no singular cause has been discovered for phantom limb syndrome. It could be caused by damaged nerve endings that reform oddly and, as a result, change the way in which they are connected to the central nervous system. Altered neural activity in the brain has also been blamed for phantom limb pain. Researchers have even proposed that the level of stress and number of personal problems a person has can increase the chances of phantom limb pain expressing itself.

== References ==

[http://www.vanderbilt.edu/News/news/apr00/nr26.html Neuronal Growth in the Brain May Explain Phantom Limb Syndrome]

Phantom limbs

AlecTroeger — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:12:08 GMT

AlecTroeger:

[[Category:Neuropsychological syndromes]]
Phantom limb syndrome causes a phantom sensation related to an individual’s amputated or missing limbs. Since it does occur in people born without limbs, it is suggested that people are born with inherent wiring with regard to the sensations felt in the limbs of the body. The afflicted individual feels as though the missing limb is still a part of his body. It feels as though it is moving appropriately with the rest of the person’s body, despite the fact that the limb itself is clearly nonexistent. It is believed that the syndrome is caused by an attempt by the brain to reorganize the sensory information that has been disrupted by the amputation.

Phantom limb syndrome was first diagnosed in the 16th Century by French military surgeon Ambroise Paré. He noted that amputees would report severe pain in their missing limbs.

== Phantom Limb Pain ==

Phantom limb pain is, as the name clearly suggests, the common painful sensations felt in the nonexistent limb. However, such pain can also occur when limbs are fully intact; it can be present in individual’s who have undergone some sort of injury – spinal cord or peripheral nerve injuries – in which the brain has been disconnected from the body.

The pain felt can be described as burning, aching, or as if the hand is being crushed; this is not a definitive list but a sampling of descriptions as the pain seems to vary among the afflicted. People have described it as being excruciating.

Unfortunately, no singular cause has been discovered for phantom limb syndrome. It could be caused by damaged nerve endings that reform oddly and, as a result, change the way in which they are connected to the central nervous system. Altered neural activity in the brain has also been blamed for phantom limb pain. Researchers have even proposed that the level of stress and number of personal problems a person has can increase the chances of phantom limb pain expressing itself.

== References ==

[http://www.vanderbilt.edu/News/news/apr00/nr26.html Neuronal Growth in the Brain May Explain Phantom Limb Syndrome]

AlecTroeger — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:43:50 GMT

AlecTroeger:

[[Category:Neuropsychological profiles]]

[[Image:http://www.uic.edu/depts/mcne/founders/Brodmap.gif]]

German neuropsychologist Korbinian Brodmann (1868-1918) was born in Liggersdorf, Hohenzollern on November 17, 1868. He studied medicine at the Universities of Munich, WÃ�Â¼rzburg, Berlin, and Freiburg but became truly interested in neurology and psychiatry during his bout of diphtheria in the summer of 1896. While being cared for at a sanatorium in northern Bavaria, Brodmann met Oskar Vogt whose influence caused him to study psychiatry, neurology, and brain anatomy in Berlin. He subsequently worked at a pathological institute and a mental asylum.

Brodmann is most famous for his revolutionary study of the comparative cytoarchitectonics of mammalian cortex. His new model of the structure of the brain put to rest any sort of confusion regarding brain area nomenclature. He described a new and totally different cytoarchitectonic structure of the pre- and postcentral gyri in the human brain and proposed that the human brain was organized just as the brains of all other mammals are organized. Brodmann stated that the brain consists of six layers, which are made up of 52 individual and histologically differing parts. As a result he created a numbering system that is still used by neuropsychologists today.

Korbinian Brodmann

AlecTroeger — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:41:44 GMT

AlecTroeger:

[[Category:Neuropsychological profiles]]

[[Image:Example http://www.uic.edu/depts/mcne/founders/Brodmap.gif]]

German neuropsychologist Korbinian Brodmann (1868-1918) was born in Liggersdorf, Hohenzollern on November 17, 1868. He studied medicine at the Universities of Munich, WÃ¼rzburg, Berlin, and Freiburg but became truly interested in neurology and psychiatry during his bout of diphtheria in the summer of 1896. While being cared for at a sanatorium in northern Bavaria, Brodmann met Oskar Vogt whose influence caused him to study psychiatry, neurology, and brain anatomy in Berlin. He subsequently worked at a pathological institute and a mental asylum.

Brodmann is most famous for his revolutionary study of the comparative cytoarchitectonics of mammalian cortex. His new model of the structure of the brain put to rest any sort of confusion regarding brain area nomenclature. He described a new and totally different cytoarchitectonic structure of the pre- and postcentral gyri in the human brain and proposed that the human brain was organized just as the brains of all other mammals are organized. Brodmann stated that the brain consists of six layers, which are made up of 52 individual and histologically differing parts. As a result he created a numbering system that is still used by neuropsychologists today.