Hello everybody!
So today I will be writing a post on the movie Dr.Strangelove, suggested to me by a dear friend!
In the movie..the character called as
Peter Sellers constantly has to restrain his alien hand from giving the Nazi party salute.
The condition the character was suffering is called as Alien Hand Syndrome.
Let's understand what exactly is alien hand syndrome.
In this Syndrome there is complex, goal directed but involuntary activity in one hand; the hand moves as if it had a mind of its own.
It is usually due to interruption of the cortical connections that control smooth bimanual operations.
The hands no longer work as a team.The affected hand begins to function autonomously and loses the ability to cooperate with its fellow.
If the patient tries to eat with the good hand, the alien hand may grasp the good hand and force it away from the mouth.
There are two forms of it:
Callosal form:
In this form there is a lesion in the anterior corpus callosum.
Intermanual conflict is typical and it nearly always affects the left hand.
Frontal form:
In the frontal form, there is a lesion of the medial frontal lobe. The alien hand is uncooperative but not contentious. It may display reflex grasping and other autonomous behavior, but there is little or no intermanual conflict.
Patients may complain of the hand’s behavior, and may criticize it ,
on the other hand (No pun intended here) patients regard the hand’s behavior as amusing.
A sensory alien hand syndrome has also been described following right posterior cerebral distribution stroke. There are typically parietal sensory deficits and hemineglect involving the left side of the body, which resemble anosognosia.
The right arm may then involuntarily attack the left side of the body.
I hope this was informative!
I love watching Movies which integrate medical conditions, do let me know your suggestions too!
Let's Learn Together!
-Medha!
