Journal of Hand Surgery (British and European Volume)

 

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Journal of Hand Surgery (British and European Volume), Vol. 25, No. 3, 242-252 (2000)
DOI: 10.1054/jhsb.1999.0339

Articles

Brain Plasticity and Hand Surgery: an Overview

G. LUNDBORG

From the Department of Hand Surgery, Malmö University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden

Correspondence: Professor G. Lundborg, Department of Hand Surgery, Malmö University Hospital, SE-205 02, Malmö , Sweden. E-mail: Goran.Lundborg{at}hand.mas.lu.se

The hand is an extension of the brain, and the hand is projected and represented in large areas of the motor and sensory cortex. The brain is a complicated neural network which continuously remodels itself as a result of changes in sensory input. Such synaptic reorganizational changes may be activity-dependent, based on alterations in hand activity and tactile experience, or a result of deafferentiation such as nerve injury or amputation. Inferior recovery of functional sensibility following nerve repair, as well as phantom experiences in virtual, amputated limbs are phenomena reflecting profound cortical reorganizational changes. Surgical procedures on the hand are always accompanied by synaptic reorganizational changes in the brain cortex, and the outcome from many hand surgical procedures is to a large extent dependent on brain plasticity.


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