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I was also really interesting in our discussion of phantom limbs on Thursday. I left class wondering about limb transplants. How does the brain come to incorporate this new body part? I know that sometimes limbs are rejected, but it is my understanding that this has to do with the immune system and not the brain. Why do some transplanted limbs function better than others?

I was reading abotu some different treatments for phantom limb pain, and I was suprised to find that there has been some use of virtual reality to treat this condition. Researchers at the University of Manchester used virtual reality to create the illusion that both limbs are still attached. This illusion helped people suffering from this condition feel like they had control over their phantom limb, and they could move it into more comfortable positions. This was interesting to me because they sort of tricked the brain on some level into believing that the limb was still there, even though obviously they knew on another level it was not.