 RELIEF could be at hand for amputees still feeling excruciating pain from missing limbs - thanks to a trick with mirrors. World-renowned neuroscientist Professor V S Ramachandran told a Liverpool audience last night how the brain could be fooled with a mirror image into switching off the agony. The professor, from the University of California in San Diego. was speaking at the Pain Relief Foundation's annual meeting at University Hospital Aintree. He discussed how amputees could experience imaginary limbs which were excruciatingly painful. Professor Ramachandran said: "In one patient there was a complete map of the phantom hand on his face, so when I touched a certain part of his cheek, he felt as though I was touching his thumb or fingers. "This seems to be because the areas of the brain which control the hand no longer get feedback, because it isn't there, so those parts of the brain invade the adjacent sections which control sensory information for the face." Dr Ramachandran also showed how a mirror could be used to unclench a phantom hand by fooling the brain into seeing the other real hand unclenched. The mirror box treatment could be used to help patients whose limbs are not amputated but paralysed. A spokesman for the Pain Relief Foundation said: "When he became aware that the Pain Relief Foundation was to hold this special lecture, Professor Ramachandran was keen to accept an invitation to visit Liverpool and take part. "It is most unusual for such a world-leading expert to visit the North West and we consider Professor Ramachandran's visit to be an honour." The Pain Relief Foundation is a Liverpool charity that researches into the causes of chronic pain and this lecture was part of their programme of educating health professionals on the treatment of pain. Professor Ramachandran, based at the Department of Psychology at the Centre for Brain & Cognition, at the University of California San Diego, gave the BBC Reith Lectures in 2003 about The Emerging Mind. He has also published a widely-acclaimed book called Phantoms in the Brain which was made into a television series. The Pain Relief Foundation has found that one in seven people in Merseyside are suffering from chronic pain. | 
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