Selective cutaneous anaesthesia – a way to improve sensibility in hand and feet

Cutaneous anaesthesia of the forearm induces a silent area in sensory cortex corresponding to the forearm cortical projection. This is followed by a rapid expansion of the nearby hand projection and an improvement in hand sensibility. Since we first demonstrated this in healthy volunteers (Björkman et al, 2004), the principle has proved very useful in the rehabilitation after nerve repair (Rosén et al, 2006) and in vibration-induced neuropathy (Rosén et al, 2007).