Re: What is Alien Hand Syndrome and how does it affect humans?

Dear Sachin,

Hi! You have asked about a rare neurological curiosity in which a patient experiences movements and sensations of one hand that he is not in control of and which he experiences as being conducted by a hand that does not belong to him! (Have you seen the movie Dr Strangelove which has a character having this behavior?).

This seems to result from damage to the cortex of the brain, or else to damage to a massive fiber tract called the corpus callosum that connects the two cerebral hemispheres. This type of damage affects the function of upper motor neurons of the cortex that control the upper limbs.

For a more detailed explanation of this disorder, go to the website www.pubmed.gov and type in Bundick T., the author of a good paper on this disorder (in Journal of Neurology and Neurosurgical Psychiatry vol. 68, p. 83, 2000).

Bundick T Jr, Spinella M.
Subjective experience, involuntary movement, and posterior alien hand syndrome.
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2000 Jan;68(1):83-85