Wonder if you have tried this ?
If you position your good hand very close to the mirror and rub whatever the surface is, the sensation feeling feels like it is much closer to the mirror image of your hand.
Its possible to rub a single or a couple of fingers on the surface and for the movement of your fingers on your good hand to be hidden by the back of your good hand. Being close to the mirror and unable to see your fingertips seems to make the sensation come from the mirror
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I agree everything Roland said.
You’re not overthinking it
and
the physical sensations will spoil the illusion if you’re trying to kid the brain about movement
but
I think you aid the illusion if you’re trying to convince the brain that the good feeling is in the affected limb
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Yes, when when you move closer to the mirror the sensations seems to come from the mirror. When I use the mirror I quickly believe my affected foot is feeling the carpet just fine… this because my good foot is feeling it fine but I easily get confused about which side is receiving the quality sensations. I totally think my right is feeling the carpet, but it’s my left that is feeling it. Luckily, I am easily fooled. Don’t play me at poker, please
ciao, Roland
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Somehow I doubt that given what you’ve said in the past about backgammon…
And I’ve been meaning to ask you about online games of backgammon. What do you use to play? Maybe we could have a game?
It’s just dice so it’s mostly chance isn’t it?
Caio caio
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Hi Simon,
There is an element of luck in backgammon, and if 2 players are of equal skill, luck is the only thing that will distinguish between the two. However, there is a huge amount of skill, strategy, and experience involved, which is why there is a ranking system, and the world’s best player, Masayuki Mochizuki has the lowest error rating in
the world, and wins more tournaments than anybody else, by far.
I used to play on a site called Heroes
The other site which is quite popular is called Backgammon Galaxy
I don’t play online any more.
ciao, ciao, Roland
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By their nature, sensations need to be direction based.
You wouldn’t do very well getting away from danger if you didn’t know which direction your sensation had come from. So it seems the closer you can get your sensation to appear to come from the direction of the mirror, the better.
I feel like I need a third arm or someone to help me, Mrs P when she has 5 mins. I want to create touch on the back of my good hand and my forearm. At the moment it’s all hand focussed.
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I found that too, so I agree completely
Back of hand and forearm ; absolutely
ciao, Roland
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Here are some of my exercises. I can’t help thinking some of these are about recovering movement as opposed to sensation.
At the risk of sounding like a weirdo, sensation wise I find something like holding a tennis ball in my good hand to be so satisfying. Feeling the sensation of the fingers moving whilst projecting that onto the mirror image. I can do this for minutes on end without any hint of boredom. How stroke changes you 
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I always struggled with the cupping the hand one. Took me forever to get the hang of it 
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And me
The physio ended up demonstrating it for me.
That exercise, it feels like a movement one to me rather than a pain relief one ? The physio team are really enthusiastic about it but for me, hand pain is just one of about 5 areas and nothing so far for any of the others.
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I think it was given to me as a movement & sensation exercise. After the first few weeks the pain in my arm was much less but i had altered sensation.
I think my physio demonstrated it numerpus timea but i never quite got the hang of it 
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Yes, Nigel,
Mirror neurons? Interesting, I think we stimulate the function by visualizing, imagining, dreaming (I run about in my dreams), watching others, watching videos of ourselves before stroke, mirror box therapy & “tricking” the mind, and simply the will to live. I’d love to hear about other stimulations that might help. Would you enjoy a chat before/after lunch?
ciao, Roland
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Hi Roland
Your suggestion of 3pm suits me fine. I have a physio mirror therapy session in a bit.
How do you want to do this, zoom, what’s app ?
Yeh I run in my dreams as well. My dreams seem to have eliminated the last few years and really gone back in time. People from school 40 years ago have regularly featured. Some of them have been great, I would happily watch them again
Cheers
Nige
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Hi Nigel,
do you think @SimonInEdinburgh would mind if we used the Thu Stroke Cafe for an hour between 3 and 4 pm ? I have to teach at 4, but an hour should be a useful amount of time,
ciao, Roland
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