Long-term and transient body representation plasticity after left brachial plexus avulsion

Supernumerary phantom limb (SPL) is a phenomenon in which people perceive an extra limb in addition to their own arms and legs. Despite being experienced by patients with stroke (Cipriani et al., 2011), or with brachial plexus avulsion (BPA e Lhermitte, 1960), this body representation disorder has rarely been investigated systematically, with most studies focusing instead on pain and the efficacity of pain treatments.Here we describe long-term (>10 years) changes in the SPL of an individual with left BPA as well as transient changes following two sessions of mirror therapy 11 years after his accident. We propose several hypotheses to explain long-term and transient changes in body representation after BPA.