somatosensory

How wearing a cast affects sense of touch and brain activity

edyong | April 23, 2009

Having your arm in a cast can be a real pain but immobilising your hand in plaster has consequences beyond itchiness, cramps and a growing collection of signatures. Silke Lissek from Bergmannsheil University found that just a few weeks in a cast can desensitise the trapped hand's sense of touch, and lower neural activity in the part of the brain that receives signals from it. The uninjured hand, however, rises to the occasion and picks up the sensory slack by becoming more sensitive than before. Lissek recruited 31 right-handed people, each of whom had one fractured arm encased in a cast,…