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Many of you may not know this, but I don’t always have control of what I do.
I’m pretty much at the control of whatever my animator wants me to do.
He's just stretching my arm right now, but we have fun!
And it looks like some of my human friends know just how I feel.
That’s cuz there’s this thing called alien hand syndrome and it’s pretty interesting.
Alien hand syndrome, also sometimes referred to as Dr. Strangelove syndrome, is a rare
neurological condition that causes one of your hands to act on its own, seemingly of
its own free will like somebody plugged a second controller into your hand.
Hey, this is a one player game buddy!
Cases of alien hand syndrome are typically found in adults, but can happen in children too.
With this condition, you don’t feel like you have control of the affected hand and
it can even feel foreign to you.
It can also happen with other limbs too, but those cases are even less common.
What’s more interesting, and sometimes scary, is that the hand doesn’t seem to move about
randomly.
Its motions are coordinated and deliberate, oftentimes carrying out complex tasks, like
zipping up a jacket or picking up something in front of you.
Aww c’mon, put down my pizza bagel! You can't even eat it! You don't have a mouth.
Oh wow! Oh you do have a mouth! Why do you have a mouth?
Uh uh! Anyway
But that’s not all that an alien hand might do.
Sometimes the hand will do the /opposite/ of what you want it to do, like closing the
fridge door after you just opened it or trying to take off your clothes after you just put
them on.
There have even been cases where a person’s alien hand has tried to harm them, which can
get pretty dangerous.
Imagine your own hand trying to choke you or swerving your car into oncoming traffic
as you’re out for a peaceful drive.
The possibilities are… unsettling.
So how can this happen?
How does someone get alien hand syndrome?
Well, it’s somewhat unclear, but it looks like a number of different things can lead
to this condition.
Some people develop it after a stroke, a tumor, or certain trauma.
It’s even been associated with things like cancer and neurodegenerative conditions.
But no matter how a person gets alien hand syndrome, it can be life-changing in a very negative way!
There is no cure for it, though some people have found a bit of success here and there
treating the symptoms.
Since it’s so rare, we don’t have a ton of data on alien hand syndrome, but we do
have a few interesting studies.
Published in 2010, a patient came in suffering from limb levitation and feeling like her
arm was controlled by a stranger.
They gave her a drug called Clonazepam, which seemed to help out and reduced her limb levitation
by 73%, but also seemed to induce psychotic episodes, so they ended treatment.
After that, they tried using botox.
It reduced her limb levitation by 84% with no reported side effects!
One recent 2016 study of a 74 year old woman diagnosed with alien hand syndrome and also
atypical Parkinson's syndrome help to shed some light on the condition might work.
They found that she couldn’t always recognize when her alien hand was being touched.
After she was blindfolded, the woman was only able to recognize her alien hand being touched
when it was /separate/ from her non-affected hand being touched
If the researchers touched both of her hands at the same time,
she wasn’t able to tell that they were touching her alien hand, only the other other one.
Studies like these could be very important to help us know more about alien hand or alien limb syndrome.
The more knowledge, the better!
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Are there any other conditions you want us to talk about next? Let me know in the comment section below!
As always, my name is Blocko, this has been Life Noggin, don't forget to keep on thinking!