ArticleFrontiers in neurology2018
The Stochastic Entanglement and Phantom Motor Execution Hypotheses: A Theoretical Framework for the Origin and Treatment of Phantom Limb Pain.
Article in Frontiers in neurology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04897425 (Mindful SensoriMotor Therapy With Brain Modulation for the Treatment of Pain in Individuals With Disarticulation or Nerve Injuries), which is not on this map. Cited by 36 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Mindful SensoriMotor Therapy With Brain Modulation for the Treatment of Pain in Individuals With Disarticulation or Nerve Injuries: A Single Arm Clinical Trial
Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Neural correlates of phantom motor execution: A functional neuroimaging systematic review and meta-analysis.Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior · 2024Pooled it
- Mathematical and Computational Models for Pain: A Systematic Review.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2021Pooled it
- Trial
- Myoelectric pattern recognition with virtual reality and serious gaming improves upper limb function in chronic stroke: a single case experimental design study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2025Trial
- Performance in myoelectric pattern recognition improves with transcranial direct current stimulation.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Effects of phantom exercises on pain, mobility, and quality of life among lower limb amputees; a randomized controlled trial.BMC neurology · 2021Trial
- BCI training to move a virtual hand reduces phantom limb pain: A randomized crossover trial.Neurology · 2020Trial
- Towards the implementation of home-based phantom limb pain training facilitated by a textile-electrode system: lessons learned from a pilot study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Theoretical foundations of Progressive Motor Training (PMT) for Phantom Limb Pain.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Myoelectric and Progressive Motor Training for Phantom Limb Pain in People with Amputations During War: A Feasibility Report.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- Stable cortical body maps before and after arm amputation.Nature neuroscience · 2025Article
- PhantomAR: gamified mixed reality system for alleviating phantom limb pain in upper limb amputees-design, implementation, and clinical usability evaluation.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Evaluating Mirror Therapy Protocols in Phantom Limb Pain Clinical Trials: A Scoping Review.Journal of pain research · 2025Review
- Myoelectric motor execution and sensory training to treat chronic pain and paralysis in a replanted arm: a case study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2024Article
- Cortical Reorganization after Limb Loss: Bridging the Gap between Basic Science and Clinical Recovery.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Review
- Case Report: Phantom limb pain relief after cognitive multisensory rehabilitation.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Pain and Reorganization after Amputation: Is Interoceptive Prediction a Key?The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry · 2023Article
- Brain-Computer Interface to Deliver Individualized Multisensory Intervention for Neuropathic Pain.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Phantom limb pain (PLP) is a debilitating condition common after amputation that can considerably hinder patients' quality of life. Several treatments have reported promising results in alleviating PLP. However, clinical evaluations are usually performed in small cohorts and rigorous clinical trials are scarce. In addition, the underlying mechanisms by which novel interventions alleviate PLP are often unclear, potentially because the condition itself is poorly understood. This article presents a theoretical framework of PLP that can be used as groundwork for hypotheses of novel treatments. Current hypotheses on the origins of PLP are discussed in relation to available clinical findings. Stochastic entanglement of the pain neurosignature, or connectome, with impaired sensorimotor circuitry is proposed as an alternative hypothesis for the genesis of PLP, and the implications and predictions this hypothesis entails are examined. In addition, I present a hypothesis for the working mechanism of Phantom Motor Execution (PME) as a treatment of PLP, along with its relation to the aforementioned stochastic entanglement hypothesis, which deals with PLP's incipience. PME aims to reactivate the original central and peripheral circuitry involved in motor control of the missing limb, along with increasing dexterity of stump muscles. The PME hypothesis entails that training of phantom movements induces gradual neural changes similar to those of perfecting a motor skill, and these purposefully induced neural changes disentangle pain processing circuitry by competitive plasticity. This is a testable hypothesis that can be examined by brain imaging and behavioral studies on subjects undergoing PME treatment. The proposed stochastic entanglement hypothesis of PLP can be generalized to neuropathic pain due to sensorimotor impairment, and can be used to design suitable therapeutic treatments.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.