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             I think that corollary discharge has helped me understand a lot of natural phenomena. For example, I get carsick rather easily, especially on the blue bus, and my friend has always told me that I should look out the window when I get carsick.  Whenever I do, I start to feel better. I now recognize that my body happens to be very sensitive to conflicting signals. My inner ear is telling me that I’m moving, but when I’m reading or even just looking at the head in front of me, my eye’s sensory neurons are telling me that I’m not moving.  When I look out the window, however, I see movement, and so the conflict goes away.

            Corollary discharge also helps me make sense of why the mirror treatment works on people with phantom limb syndrome. If someone’s eyes see that there is no limb moving, even when that person thinks that he or she is moving it, then that person’s body will come to realize that there is no limb to move and the pain that that person feels will decrease. This makes me wonder about how much pain a person with a prosthetic limb would feel. If the sensory neurons see that there is a limb, does that information trick the brain into thinking that there is a limb? And if it does, would this decrease pain because it would cause the brain to think that the signals for movement are successfully getting through?