Abstract
The adult brain’s capacity for cortical reorganization remains debated. Using longitudinal neuroimaging in three adults, followed up to five years before and after arm amputation, we compared cortical activity elicited by movement of the hand (pre-amputation) versus phantom hand (post-amputation) and lips (pre/post-amputation). We observed stable representations of both hand and lips. By directly quantifying activity changes across amputation, we overturn decades of animal and human research, demonstrating amputation does not trigger large- scale cortical reorganization.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
We added multiple new datasets and analyses. Specifically, we (1) added a 3rd case-study participant, (2) replicated all of our findings within motor cortex, (3) incorporated additional follow-up post-amputation data up to five years,(4) added data from a cross-sectional amputee dataset, (5) added two additional able-bodied control datasets, (6) added kinematic data for the intact hand, (7) greatly shortened the length of the manuscript and (8) performed multiple new analyses.
