A man loses his right hand in a farm accident, four year later, he has episodes of severe pain in the missing hand (phantom limb pain). A detailed PET scan study of his cerebral cortex might be expected to show
High-Yield Explanation
When a body part is amputated, the somatosensory area that represents the neighbouring part of the amputated part spreads over to the somatosensory area that represents the amputated area- Cortical plasticity. This may describe the phenomenon of phantom limb. Since representation in somatosensory area is of contralateral side, cortical plasticity occurs in the opposite side of somatosensory area.