Extraterrestrial hand syndrome is a rare neurological disorder, but very important when you consider the degree of disability the condition can cause in the affected person as well as in your environment.
Let us think that body experience, in the global sense, is a very complex process, so it requires the integration of several sensory signals, when a problem arises in this integration can occur several neurological disorders, such as the awareness of the amputee. sensory duplication of various parts of the body.
- In 1908.
- Goldstein described the case of a patient who suffered a right brain infarction.
- After stroke.
- The patient had weakness in her left leg and a strange motor disorder in her left arm.
- So she felt her left hand did not belong to her.
Subsequently, Akelaitis (1944) described the case of two patients whose callous body was sectioned to control epilepsy, one of them referred that his left hand was making involuntary movements opposite those desired by his right hand, which the author called diagnostic dyspraxia.
It was Brion and Jedynak (1972) who gave the name strange hand syndrome to this condition, who interpreted the erratic behavior of patients’ left hand as a pathognomonic symptom of callous bodily injury. The authors analyzed the behavior of four patients who had a wide variety of symptoms of disconnection between hemispheres. Their deficits included:
As a result of this research, it has been shown that the onset of symptoms of other people’s hand syndrome can also accompany several nosological syndromes.
In foreign hand syndrome, the patient feels that his limb acts independently, in this way he develops involuntary movements that seem intentional, movements that are usually in conflict or rival otherwise.
People affected by this disease tend to feel that their limb is dissociated from their physical being, in a way it is as if the hand no longer belongs to them, and in many cases people are afraid and try to be attentive to prevent the actions of the uncontrolled hand.
Sometimes people affected by the syndrome can be monitored intermittently and voluntarily. Author Biran and his colleagues (2006) proposed the existence of three elements in the syndrome:
Thus, in stressful situations, such as fatigue or anxiety, movements can temporarily increase.
Currently, extraterrestrial mother syndrome is considered to be based on two fundamental assumptions:
Causes of other people’s hand syndrome are surgical and include
Frontal ADM is the result of damage to several areas of the brain:
In frontal media lesions, the change occurs in the opposite hand to the injured hemisphere, and primary reflexes are maintained.
Treatment for this syndrome involves certain techniques such as
In 1964, Stanley Kubrick directed a film called Dr. Strangelove or How Did I Get to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb ?, based on Peter George’s Red Alert. The book describes the attempt of a general who wants to start an atomic war and the efforts of others to prevent it.
In the film, Dr. Strangelove is described as an extravagant character exhibiting strange and abnormal movements, so his right hand seems to have a life of his own and his inappropriate and involuntary movements are remarkable during the film. in the film itself we see how the doctor tries to control these movements with the other hand, in this sense, the function adequately and accurately describes the difficulties faced by MDG patients.