Alien hand syndrome

Until now, modern medicine has not been able to explain the mysterious phenomenon of hands that always act, as if they have their own brains.

Pretty much every movie ever mentioned strange hand syndrome. In the 1935 thriller "Mad Love" , Peter Lorre's surgeon replaced the pianist's hand with the knife's hand. Since then, the hand began to perform horrific murder.

Recently, the famous film "Dr. Strangelove or: How to stop worrying and love the bomb" was released in 1964, and the character played by Peter Sellers always struggles to control his right hand. Nazi style rite.

Alien hand syndrome.

However, it is only an entertaining part that appears in movies. In fact, strange hand syndrome is scary and much more annoying. These counter-productive hands can suddenly do something, which is not the intention of the owner.

In another case, when the dominant hand is buttoning the shirt, the "alien" hand unleashes each button, or the hand is lit by the fire, and the other hand is quickly extinguished. cigarette.

Tragically, patients with strange hands are always aware of the movements of the rogue arm, always feel what the arm "feels" , but cannot control the strange arm in their own right. their.

The most common complaint of these patients when going to the doctor is: "I can't make him listen to me". Many patients even gave a different name to the strange arm - usually an unsuccessful hand - because to them, it was like someone else's hand suddenly attached to his body in an infinite way.

If the disease is mild, some patients can control the strange arm with great effort. But even then, their activities were still inaccurate - instead of trying to touch the nose, the arm reached the shoulder. In severe cases, the reaction arm can even attack a patient or try to strangle a patient with a rope.

In a dangerous situation, strange hands can attack the owner.

There are quite a few similar syndromes of strange hands. They are considered products of some brain damage. The most common case, or at least most clearly documented, is neurological patients with strange hands. They voluntarily undergo some surgery to separate the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere in the hope of controlling the operation of the hand.

However, the cure for this disease so far has not been available. The solution was to "create jobs" for the strange arm, like giving it a cane. Thus, when "busy" with holding the cane, the "dangerous" arm may be less intimidating.