Referred itch (Mitempfindungen)

Abstract

About one person in four or five is conscious that scratching an irritation may produce an itch elsewhere. The sensation is well localised, comes and goes quickly, and recurs when scratching is repeated a short while later. Scratch and referred itch are ipsilateral; scratching the site of the referred itch does not cause the original spot to itch. Scatching face, palms, or soles does not produce referred itching. Different people stimulated in the same region do not necessarily feel referred itch in the same place. The mechanism of the phenomenon is unknown, though it may be thalamic.