Back to topics

How can a missing limb still hurt?

A person can feel pain in a limb that is no longer there. The experience is real, even though its felt location is absent. Researchers investigate both signaling in remaining nerves and the nervous system’s representation of the body. Those possibilities need not be mutually exclusive, and a phantom sensation is not always painful.

3–7 min

Questions you could explore

  • How could a study distinguish where a sensation is felt from where the signals contributing to it arise?

Start reading

Ready to try your ideas aloud?

Your topic carries over. Record up to 2½ minutes, depending on your plan.

Health and the body

How does daylight set the body’s clock?

Feeling sleepy at night involves more than counting the hours since you woke up. Internal daily rhythms respond to outside cues, with light helping coordinate the body's sense of time.

3–5 min

How does daylight set the body’s clock?

Health and the body3–5 minFeeling sleepy at night involves more than counting the hours since you woke up. Internal daily rhythms respond to outside cues, with light helping coordinate the body's sense of time.

Health and the body

How does a vaccine give the immune system a memory?

The immune system can respond differently to something it has encountered before. Vaccines make use of recognition and memory, though different vaccine types introduce the relevant information in different ways.

4–5 min

How does a vaccine give the immune system a memory?

Health and the body4–5 minThe immune system can respond differently to something it has encountered before. Vaccines make use of recognition and memory, though different vaccine types introduce the relevant information in different ways.

Health and the body

Why won’t an antibiotic treat a viral cold?

The word infection covers illnesses caused by very different organisms. An antibiotic that helps against certain bacteria has no matching target in the viruses that cause a cold.

2–3 min

Why won’t an antibiotic treat a viral cold?

Health and the body2–3 minThe word infection covers illnesses caused by very different organisms. An antibiotic that helps against certain bacteria has no matching target in the viruses that cause a cold.

How can a missing limb still hurt? | Speech Topic | speaking.app