Ever had that feeling that you weren’t in control of your body? Imagine if it only occurred in one hand.
Alien (the foreign kind, not the grey kind) hand syndrome is when a person feels that their hand behaves in a way that seems it almost has a mind of its own. Suffers claim that they have full sensation and can feel pain, yet they have no control of the action of the limb.
Documented cases usually involve a patient suffering from some type of neurological damage such as a stroke, neurological trauma or brain injury and extreme epilepsy.
Sufferers claim that unlike other neurological conditions such as Phantom Limb syndrome (where the sufferer feels the limb needs to be removed) they continue to feel ownership over the limb, just lack control over it.
In some cases, the sufferer has no idea of what the limb is doing until it is brought to their attention.
Current theories suggest that the syndrome is the result of damage to the medial motor frontal region of the brain. It is assumed that the condition occurs when the neural connections in parts of the brain that control and regulate motor functions are severed.
No completely effective treatment exists for the condition.
Sounds like this condition could get some sufferers into some awkward situations in the dark.
