Remapping somatosensory cortex after injury.

The results reported here show convincingly that the adult somatosensory cortex alters its maps subsequent to injury. Studies with amputees and chronic pain patients have shown that pain may be one important perceptual correlate of the changes that were observed in primary somatosensory cortex. These results also have led to new approaches to rehabilitation. Both pharmacologic and behavioral interventions designed to alter cortical reorganization were found to not only alter the organization of primary somatosensory cortex but also maladaptive perceptual phenomena that accompany these changes.