Ambroise Paré and René Descartes on Sensation in Amputated Limbs

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Ambroise Paré and René Descartes can, each in their own way, be considered pioneers in the recognition of sensation in amputated limbs. Paré is one of the first surgeons to recognize this unusual perception and to provide a kind of description of this feeling. Descartes, as philosopher and physician, goes further by giving a ‘mechanical’ explanation of the origin of this sensation. For Paré, when an amputated patient feels pain in a missing limb, then there must be a stimulus to the nerve endings that allows this sensation. For Descartes, the sensation of pain is explained by sensory information, due to a triggering of the nerves’ ends, which send vibrations to the tubes up to the brain. These mechanical signals look like those previously associated with pain, which is why the patient thinks he feels pain. Descartes uses a mechanical understanding of the nerves functioning to explain how pain is triggered and even felt in a missing limb.