Alien hand syndrome

Alien hand syndrome (also known as anarchic hand) is a neurological disorder in which the afflicted person's hand appears to take on a mind of its own. Alien hand syndrome is best documented in cases where a person has had the two hemispheres of their brain surgically separated, a procedure sometimes used to relieve the symptoms of extreme cases of epilepsy. It also occurs in some cases after other brain surgery, strokes, or infections. Anarchic hand syndrome and alien hand syndrome are two similar but separate disorders. In both there are unintended but purposeful and autonomous movements of the upper limb and intermanual conflict. But in anarchic hand syndrome patients acknowledge the hand as theirs, although they are frustrated by...