Phantom percepts: Tinnitus and pain as persisting aversive memory networks

Phantom perception refers to the conscious awareness of a percept in the absence of an external stimulus. On the basis of basic neuroscience on perception and clinical research in phantom pain and phantom sound, we propose a working model for their origin. Sensory deafferentation results in high-frequency, gamma band, synchronized neuronal activity in the sensory cortex. This activity becomes a conscious percept only if it is connected to larger coactivated "(self-)awareness" and "salience" brain networks. Through the involvement of learning mechanisms, the phantom percept becomes associated to distress, which in turn is reflected by a simultaneously coactivated nonspecific distress network consisting of the…

• HH
  Howard Hughes Medical Institute
• CN
  Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
• CN
  Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología
• UD
  Universidad de Buenos Aires
• UN
  Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México