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In a 1996 study, the neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran and Diane Rogers-Ramachandran placed a mirror so that the reflection of an amputee's intact hand appeared where the missing, “phantom” hand was still felt. Of five patients whose phantom hand felt painfully clenched, four said the mirror let them “open” it and eased the spasm.

V.S. Ramachandran & Diane Rogers-Ramachandran, 1996

MindHealth

The story behind the card

Most people who lose a limb go on feeling it, a sensation called a phantom limb, and many feel pain in it, sometimes as if the missing hand were clenched with the nails digging in. Ramachandran, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego, reasoned that the brain kept sending commands to the hand and getting no answer back. In the mirror box, a box with a mirror down the middle, the patient moves the intact hand and sees its reflection where the missing one should be; for a moment the brain accepts that the phantom is moving and relaxing. Mirror therapy is now also used after strokes and for a chronic pain condition called complex regional pain syndrome. Reviews find it helps some patients, though many trials are small.

Türkçe oku
Nörobilimci V.S. Ramachandran ve Diane Rogers-Ramachandran 1996'da, elini kaybetmiş hastaların önüne bir ayna yerleştirdi: sağlam elin yansıması, hâlâ hissedilen “hayalet” elin yerinde görünüyordu. Hayalet elini acıyla kenetlenmiş hisseden beş hastanın dördü, aynaya bakarken o eli “açabildiğini” ve kasılmanın hafiflediğini söyledi.

Kolunu ya da bacağını kaybeden insanların çoğu, o uzvu yıllarca hissetmeye devam eder; buna hayalet uzuv denir. Birçoğu bu uzuvda ağrı da duyar, kimi zaman kayıp eli yumruk gibi kenetlenmiş, tırnakları avucuna batıyormuş gibi hisseder. San Diego'daki Kaliforniya Üniversitesi'nde çalışan nörobilimci Ramachandran, beynin ele komut göndermeyi sürdürdüğünü ama karşılık alamadığını düşündü. Ortasında bir ayna bulunan ayna kutusunda hasta sağlam elini oynatır ve yansımasını kayıp elin yerinde görür; beyin de bir an için hayalet elin hareket edip gevşediğine inanır. Ayna tedavisi bugün inme sonrasında ve kompleks bölgesel ağrı sendromu denen süreğen bir ağrı hastalığında da kullanılıyor. Derlemeler bazı hastalara yardımcı olduğunu gösteriyor, ancak çalışmaların çoğu küçük.

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Background reading: Mirror box
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