title: Immediate interpersonal and intermanual referral of sensations following anesthetic block of one arm.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore whether interpersonal and intermanual sensory referral occurs following anesthetic block of a limb and to test theories of disinhibition of mirror neuron activity and transcallosal referral.
  
  
  METHODS
  Case series.
  
  
  METHODS
  Outpatient surgery at the University of California San Diego Medical Center.
  
  
  METHODS
  Six patients who underwent orthopedic surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patient verbal ratings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with brachial plexus blocks experienced touch sensations in the anesthetized arm when watching another person's arm being touched or when the contralateral intact hand was touched.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of rapid reorganization of functional connectivity in the adult human brain, most likely in S2 neurons. This finding suggests that conscious perception of touch results from fluctuating mosaics of cortical excitation and inhibition between different regions within the patient's own S2 neurons and, more remarkably, from viewing others' sensations.
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92093-0109, USA.
authors.forename: Laura K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Case
authors.forename: Reid A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Abrams
authors.forename: Vilayanur S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Ramachandran
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000777:Anesthetics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001132:Arm / Q000294:innervation; D001917:Brachial Plexus / Q000187:drug effects*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008954:Models, Biological; D010591:Phantom Limb / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000777:Anesthetics