#neural-plasticity

#neural-plasticity

A rare circulatory problem required Emily Wheldon to have her left arm amputated three years ago. Her brain still thinks it's there. "Most days, it just feels like I've got my arm next to me," she says. The perception is so compelling that Wheldon had to train herself not to rely on the missing limb. "When I first had the amputation," she says, "I was trying to put my arm out to stop myself from falling."

Our findings indicate that even without task feedback, unsupervised learning can induce significant neural plasticity, reshaping sensory representations in the visual cortex.