MAKING AN OMELETTE WITH AN 'ALIEN' HAND
"In living skills M.P. was making good progress with an omelette when the left hand "helped out" by throwing in, first, a couple of additional, uncracked eggs, then an unpeeled onion and a salt cellar into the frying pan. There were also times when the left hand deliberately stopped the right hand carrying out a task. In one instance I asked her to put her right hand through a small hole. "I can't - the other one's holding it" she said. I looked over and saw her left hand firmly gripping the right at the wrist"
ALIEN HAND SYNDROME: AN ANIMATED ART VIDEO!
PLOT: When she woke up from surgery, Karen thought she was doing great. But then something very alarming started to happen and her doctors had a new diagnosis: Alien Hand Syndrome.
THE ALIEN HAND SYNDROME & BRAIN DAMAGE
Although this phenomenon is not particularly hazardous to the patients' health, it does cause a lot mental frustration. Some patients even go as far as associating a different personality, and sometimes even a different name, with the hand: like they are having a bionic hand out of control. The seemingly supernatural disorder is caused by a few broken connections in the brain. Brain damage can be caused by a variety of factors including accidents, strokes, and brain hemorrhages. One of the causes of alien hand syndrome is damage to the corpus callosum of the brain. The corpus callosum connects the two halves of the brain and helps the two halves communicate with one another.
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.
Sources: The Tartan & RitaCarter.co.uk
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