The Alien Hand Syndrome - scary stories of brain damage!
People who have the Alien Hand Syndrome have no voluntary control over one of their hands. Their hand may reach out and grab objects or even perform complicated tasks like buttoning up clothing or strangling oneself - without the patient's will to make this action.
The Halloween season is the time for psycho-thriller and horror movies. However, fans of such movies should consider delving into some medical literature to get the best scary stories.
Patients suffering from this disorder have no voluntary control over one of their hands. The hand may reach out and grab objects or even perform complicated tasks like buttoning up clothing or strangling oneself without the patient meaning to do so.
Damage to the corpus callosum therefore disconnects the two halves of the brain and generally disrupts communication between the two sides of the body. In such patients, the dominant hand can be controlled voluntarily, but the other hand shows involuntary movements. What is striking about patients with corpus callosum damage is that the two hands tend to perform opposing actions. For example, if one hand voluntarily picks up an object, the other hand will involuntarily try to put that object back down. The frontal cortex, which is the foremost part of the upper layer of thebrain, also plays a role in the alien hand syndrome. Patients who have the corpus callosum and regions of the frontal cortex damaged exhibit obsessive grasping behaviors. In many cases, patients have to forcefully pry open the fingers of the alien hand with their good hand to release the objects.
Damage to the posterior regions of the brain show yet another set of symptoms. The alien hands in such cases tend to stray away from anything in the environment and show uncoordinated movements.
Although damage to these areas of the brain has been linked to the disorder, the reason why the damage causes the disorder is not known yet. Studies have suggested that the damaged areas may play a role in voluntary movements of the body, but exact causes still remain a mystery.
As of now, there isn’t any treatment for this disorder, but in many cases, the symptoms seem to diminish if the alien hand is kept occupied with some task.
For patients with the obsessive grasping disorder, if the hand is made to hold an object like a cane at all times, it no longer attempts to grasp other objects.
However, patients still have to cope with the perpetual loss of one hand as the alien hand cannot be used to perform any meaningful tasks.
Researchers, however, view the disorder as an interesting tool with which they can further explore the brains behind this scary story.
