Referral pattern is the characteristic map of where a point sends sensation, often far from the point itself.
A knot in the hip may light up the calf; a knot in the neck may light up the temple. In 📝Trigger Point Therapy those maps — from 📝Travell and Simons — are a working picture of 📝Referred Pain, not a proof of nerve-root disease and not a diagnosis. The useful test is whether pressing the point reproduces a sensation the person already knows.
Clients are often surprised that the sore place is not the source. Numbness, weakness, or a pattern that does not fit a familiar map is a reason to pause and refer, not to keep pressing.