In 1994, Ramachandran proved the theory by mapping the brain activity of a group of amputees. Using a magnetic scanner he showed that neuron activity was indeed migrating from the hand area to the face. It was a ground-breaking study.<\/p>\n
But he believed much more could be gleaned from studying phantom limbs.<\/p>\n
In the mid-1990s he followed the work of Italian scientist Giacomo Rizzolatti, who discovered an entirely new type of neuron that he called the mirror neuron.<\/p>\n
Rizzolatti observed that certain neurons in the brain of a macaque monkey fired when the monkey reached out and when it watched another monkey reach out. Mirror neurons were later discovered in humans too.<\/p>\n
Ramachandran began to apply this finding to his work with phantom limbs. If mirror neurons fired when an individual watched someone moving a limb, he conjectured, then visual perception might play an important role in creating the sensation of movement.<\/p>\n
His next subject, Jimmy, felt that his phantom hand was always agonisingly clenched, with his phantom fingernails digging into his missing hand.<\/p>\n
Ramachandran put a mirror between Jimmy’s arms and asked him to move both his phantom and healthy limb simultaneously, while looking at the reflection of the healthy limb – effectively fooling Jimmy’s brain into thinking his phantom was moving in a normal way.<\/p>\n
Jimmy felt his clenched fist release almost immediately.<\/p>\n
"This is because you are creating intense sensory conflict – the vision is telling you the limb is moving," Ramachandran explains.<\/p>\n
"One way the brain deals with conflict is to say, ‘To hell with it! There is no arm,’ and the arm disappears.<\/p>\n
"I tell my medical colleagues that it is the first example in the history of medicine of successful amputation of a phantom limb."<\/p>\n
He called the treatment Mirror Visual Feedback therapy or MVF. But it wasn’t until much later that MVF was properly acknowledged by clinicians.<\/p>\n