Preservation of hand movement representation in the sensorimotor areas of amputees

Denervation due to amputation is known to induce cortical reorganization in the sensorimotor cortex. Although there is evidence that reorganization does not lead to a complete loss of the representation of the phantom limb, it is unclear to what extent detailed, finger-specific activation patterns are preserved in motor cortex, an issue that is also relevant for development of brain–computer interface solutions for paralysed people. We applied...