Alien Hand Syndrome: The Mystery of Uncontrolled Movements

Imagine you connect your Bluetooth speaker to your mobile and start listening to your favourite songs. Suddenly, the speaker starts to play random songs. Those are songs that you don’t have on your mobile. You try to switch songs on your mobile but it isn’t changing on your speaker. It now starts to play an audio note. The language sounds alien because your phone isn’t storing it. The speaker is now out of your control and has started to act independently. You then check and notice that the mobile has disconnected from the speaker. Now just replace the Bluetooth speaker with one of your limbs, say your left hand. What if one day your left-hand stops working per your will? What if the hand starts to perform alien tasks that you never intended? Your left hand has now slipped out of your control and started to act independently. This is the Alien Hand Syndrome.

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What is Alien Hand Syndrome?

It is a neurological disorder, where a person loses control of one of their limbs. This disorder is reported very rarely. The errant limb yet functions in purposeful tasks of its own. It performs autonomously like an alien. It is a manifestation of an underlying serious neurological condition. This syndrome affects the limbs in general. But most people experience the non-dominant hand being affected. There are 3 types of Alien Hand Syndrome, categorized based on the brain area affected.

• Callosal Region: Corpus Callosum divides the brain into two hemispheres. When this region is affected, the hands move in conflicting ways.
• Frontal Region: When the frontal region is affected the brain recognises the affected hand. But the actions performed by the hand like clutching or clasping are out of control.
• Posterior Region: When the posterior region of the brain is affected, patients pull their affected hand away from touching things around them, as a natural response.

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Symptoms of Alien Hand Syndrome

Alien Hand Syndrome occurs when the mind is disconnected from the body. Therefore, it affects both the mind and body. In some instances, the dissociation happens so strongly that the person no longer recognizes the affected hand as their own body part. This can be extremely distressing. The specific symptoms can vary depending on the type. However, there can be significant overlap between different types. Interestingly, no one has ever reported experiencing pain from this condition.

Callosal Region Type Symptoms

• Intermanual conflict: It is when the two hands act in opposing ways, leading to coordination problems or confusion.

Frontal Region Type Symptoms

• Unintended clasping of objects.
• Involuntary clenching of their body parts.
• Struggling to let go of objects they are holding.

Posterior Region Type Symptoms

• Unrecognition of hands.
• Aimless movements of hands like waving.
• Unintentional rising of arms in the air (Levitations).

Patients also suffer from agony and distress due to the reaction of onlookers. They often prefer hiding the affected hand.

Causes of Alien Hand Syndrome

This syndrome occurs mostly due to damage in brain regions that control motor functions. This damage may have occurred due to various reasons.

• Stroke
• Brain injury
• Brain surgery side-effects
• Tumors or lesions in the brain
• Brain disorders (like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease)
• Neurodegenerative disorders (like Parkinson’s disease)

The likelihood of developing Alien Hand Syndrome due to the above causes varies significantly. Also, research is still on to find the exact causes of a few cases of Alien Hand Syndrome.

How can it be diagnosed?

Diagnosing it can be difficult. It is a genuine neurological condition without any psychiatric elements. This can create confusion during diagnosis, especially since psychiatric disorders and behavioural issues are far more common than Alien Hand Syndrome. Accurate diagnosis requires thorough observation and evaluation to distinguish Alien Hand Syndrome from other possible conditions. It is mostly attributed to brain region impairment, therefore structural and functional brain imaging techniques like CT, MRI, fMRI, SPECT, etc are used for diagnosis.

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Is There a Cure for Alien Hand Syndrome?

It has no cure as yet. It is still under research. There are a few treatment interventions to manage the symptoms. You can view these as rehabilitation or management strategies, which you can change based on the patient’s condition.

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: It helps people with emotion regulation during distress and manage dysfunctionalities with their alien hand.
• Behavioural Modifications: For patients who had a stroke in the right hemisphere, placing their left hand in their right field of vision or keeping it restrained while performing tasks proves to be helpful.
• Sensory or Distraction Tricks: One simple technique used by patients with a frontal variant, is to hold a stationary object using their affected hand voluntarily to distract it. The sensory urge to grasp random objects subsides. They can now continue to work with their unaffected hand.
• Clonazepam/ Botulinum Toxin (Botox): These drugs have proved to show a significant reduction in levitations in a patient. Clonazepam (a drug used for seizures) lowers the oversensitivity of the alien arm. Botox targets muscle control and provides relief from symptoms.

Often people with this syndrome sit on their errant hand, so they do not have to constantly watch the involuntary actions that the hand does. Though this disorder looks interesting and harmless, it can be tormenting to live with it. In some cases, the alien hand can do hurtful actions. Therefore, it is best to seek medical attention earlier.

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FAQs:

1. What is Alien Hand Syndrome?

It is a neurological disorder, where a person loses control of one of their limbs.

2. What are the 3 variants of AHS?

Callosal, Frontal, Posterior.

3. What are some common causes of AHS?

Brain tumour, lesions, stroke, brain injury, etc.

4. How can AHS be diagnosed?

It is mostly attributed to brain region impairment, therefore structural and functional brain imaging techniques like CT, MRI, fMRI, SPECT, etc are used for diagnosis.