A longitudinal study in Nature Neuroscience analyzed brain activation in three people before and after hand amputation and found that somatosensory maps for the hand and neighboring lip region remained highly consistent. Participants performed — or attempted — finger and lip movements in an MRI before surgery and at three and six months afterward; one was rescanned at 18 months and another at five years with similar results. The findings challenge the traditional view that neighboring cortical regions invade the deafferented hand area after amputation and help explain vivid phantom limb sensations. Researchers say the preserved cortical map supports candidacy for neural prosthetics and brain-computer interfaces even long after limb loss. The results also call into question therapies aimed at reversing cortical reorganization, such as mirror therapy, and suggest phantom limb pain mechanisms may involve peripheral nerve structures. Limitations include the small sample (n=3), though authors compared results with a cohort of long-term upper-limb amputees.