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by Terr_ 874 days ago
This reminds me of how phantom pain (such as from a missing arm) maybe treatable by using the rubber hand illusion.

"Hey brain, you can see it's undamaged and sending signals that kinda-match other input, so calm down and reset the alarm..."

1 comments

The "illusion" is the idea behind Mirror Therapy for amputees -- the mirror makes it look like there are two limbs and the brain receives information that both limbs are intact and functional. A trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that it was effective for reducing phantom pain after 4 weeks of regular practice. I've heard people say it helps and others say it didn't. I've never tried it, since -- luckily -- phantom pain has not been an issue for me.