On the syndrome of the "spare limb": one case.
We describe a case of a brain-damaged patient who had a peculiar bodily illusion which could not be labelled an hallucination but seemed somatognosically and phenomenologically similar to the phantom limb without amputation. The patient, who showed left hemiplegia, felt a third upper limb (without seeing it) which he himself defined as "spare." The spare limb was not deformed; it could be moved and controlled by the patient, and there was no sensation of pain. The patient did not show psychopathological or cognitive disorders. A possible interpretation of the phenomenon is as a "phantom movement" of the paralysed limb: the mental representation of the movement of the limb was dissociated from the bodily representation of his own limb and so was still present in his consciousness despite the paralysis.
Grossi
Dario
D
Psychological Department, Second University of Naples, Italy.
Di Cesare
Gabriela
G
Tamburro
Rosario Paolo
RP
D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003702:Delusions / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D006406:Hematoma / Q000601:surgery; D006429:Hemiplegia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007699:Kinesthesis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010591:Phantom Limb / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D011434:Proprioception; D013577:Syndrome; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000601:surgery