> Also, you can't map receptive fields -- which specific > areas of cortex correspond to what sensation in what part > of the body -- if your patient is an

> Also, you can't map receptive fields -- which specific > areas of cortex correspond to what sensation in what part > of the body -- if your patient is an amputee, and there's > no "master map" that's precise enough since it varies > between individuals widely. This is a very good point but I don't think it's an insurmountable problem. After amputation or deafferentation the "unused" parts of the cortical map get taken over by adjacent representation areas. However, after hand transplantation cortex recovers some of it's normal organization[1]. So it's at least possible that cortical stimulation could lead to the same result. 1. Frey et al. Chronically deafferented sensory cortex recovers a grossly typical organization after allogenic hand transplantation. Curr. Biol. (2008) vol. 18 (19) pp. 1530-4