Event overview
Dr Tamar Makin (Oxford Uni) discusses phantom limb pain, proposing that the cortical resources of a missing hand can be used by other body parts and even artificial limbs.
Speaker: Dr Tamar Makin, University of Oxford
Time: 4pm Wednesday 15 February 2017
Venue: Lecture Theatre, Ben Pimlott Building, Goldsmiths
Following arm-amputation, brain areas that previously operated the hand will become “freed-up” to work for other body parts. This process of brain plasticity is widely held to result in the experience of phantom limb pain (pain that is perceived to be arising from the missing hand), and is therefore considered to be maladaptive.
In this Whitehead Lecture Series talk, Dr Tamar Makin (University of Oxford) will present evidence to challenge the proposed link between brain plasticity and phantom pain, and instead demonstrate that representation of the missing hand persists decades after amputation.
She will show that the cortical resources of the missing hand can be used by a multitude of body parts, and even artificial limbs. Based on this evidence, Makin suggests that plasticity in amputees is experience-dependant, and is not inherently maladaptive.
Biography:
Dr Tamar Makin graduated from the Brain and Behavioural Sciences programme at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2009. She was then awarded several career development fellowships to establish her research program on brain plasticity in amputees at FMRIB, the neuroimaging centre the University of Oxford - first as Research Fellow and later as a Principle Investigator. In 2016 she joined the faculty of UCL to continue this work.
About the Whitehead Lecture Series
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 15 Feb 2017 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm |
Accessibility
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