From: Jeroen Kumeling
Source: http://www.sightings.com/politics6/hand.htm
'Alien Hand' Syndrome Turns Limbs Monstrous
By E.J. Mundell
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000221/hl/dsb_51.html
2-21-00
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- Like victims in a horror film,
patients with a rare syndrome known as 'alien hand' feel
disassociated from one of their own hands, insisting that the
hand is 'possessed' by a force outside their control.
The condition typically arises in the aftermath of brain
surgery, stroke, or infection. Patients can feel sensation in
the hand, but believe that it is not part of their body, and
that they have no control over its movements. In some cases,
"alien hands can perform complex acts such as trying to tear
clothes or undoing buttons," explain neurologist Dr. R.
Inzelberg and colleagues at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in
Hadera, Israel.
Writing in the February issue of the Journal of Neurology,
Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, the Israeli team describes a case
of 'alien hand' associated with a possible case of
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a degenerative brain disorder
caused by infectious particles called prions.
The patient in question, a 70-year-old Argentinean man,
underwent a swift neurological decline -- including
hallucinations, memory dysfunction, behavior change and alien
hand -- possibly caused by CJD. "At times," the researchers
report, "(his) left arm would spontaneously rise in front of the
patient during speaking.... He was unaware of these movements
until they were brought to his attention."
Isolated reports have linked alien hand with CJD in the past. In
one case, "the alien limb performed complex actions such as
unbuttoning (the patient's) blouse and removing a hair pin." In
another, a woman found herself "powerless" to prevent her hand
from repeatedly touching her eyes and mouth.
According to the study authors, various types of brain injury
appear to trigger distinct subtypes of alien hand. For example,
in right-handed persons, injury to the corpus callosum -- a
bundle of nerves connecting the two halves of the brain -- can
give rise to "purposeful" movements of the left hand, while
injury to the brain's frontal lobe can trigger "grasping" and
other purposeful movements in the dominant (right) hand. In
other cases, "aimless movements of either hand" occur in
patients affected by injury to the brain's cerebral cortex. And
the authors note that more complex alien hand movements -- such
as unbuttoning or tearing of clothes -- are usually associated
with brain tumors, aneurysm or stroke.
In every case, patients retain sensation of feeling in the
affected hand or arm, but lose any sense of control over the
renegade limb. "They may struggle to stop the movements,"
Inzelberg told Reuters Health, "restrain the limb, punish it,
talk to it, personify or refer to it as a third person. The may
even say that an evil spirit exists in the hand. In a sense the
hand is the 'Other'."
The study authors note that one common factor between the
diseases associated with the phenomenon is that all these
disorders involve several parts of the brain at once, suggesting
that simultaneous damage to the parts of the brain that control
movement may be responsible. In essence, Inzelberg explained,
there is a "disconnection between parts of the brain which are
involved in motor (voluntary muscle) control."
Unfortunately, there is currently no treatment for alien hand.
According to the Israeli researcher, all patients can do to
control the problem is to keep the hand "occupied" by having it
hold an object.
Based on their findings, the investigators advise that
Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease be added to the list of neurological
disorders that prompt 'alien hand'. Inzelberg says future
studies are planned "to understand better the mechanisms
involved in this rare condition." SOURCE: Journal of Neurology,
Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 2000;68:103-104.
Jeroen Kumeling
Paul Krugerstraat 6
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+31 (0)74-24 25 514
email: jkumeling@ufonet.nl
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