What is Alien Hand Syndrome?
A short explanation of Dr. Strangelove Syndrome
AHS (or Dr. Strangelove Syndrome) is a rare disorder where a person’s limb(s) will act on their own accord without the consent of their/its owner. First identified in 1908 by Kurt Goldstein, who observed this in one of his patients, AHS is an umbrella term that can relate to a sundry of medical disorders where someone “experiences one or more limbs purportedly acting on their own initiative, outside of the person’s intent.” For a person without AHS, this feeling is similar to when you are looking for something only to realize that it’s in your hand; you had no sensorial knowledge of the object, almost like your hand was independent of your body.
AHS manifests in several ways depending on the affected region of the brain. For example, a person might open something with one hand only to have the alien hand close it, their hand might levitate, or they might even pick up random objects. There are even instances when the alien limb tries to slap or strangle its owner.
A person might procure AHS via stroke, infection, tumor, aneurysm, Alzhiemer’s disease, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, but even though the list is extensive, it is relatively rare (between 1996 and 2011 the Mayo Clinic only observed 150 cases), and there is a wide spectrum of severity.
There are three prominent variants of AHS that correlate to the affected region of the brain: Frontal, Callosal, or Posterior. Those with Frontal usually have dysfunction in the left part of their brain, which means that their right hand is subject to groping and grabbing at random. Those with Callosal are prone to counteract their movements performed by the non-affected region of their body, and their affected hand is extremely compliant to orders that others make. And finally, Posterior is the result of damage in multiple parts of the brain. If a person has this version of AHS, their affected limb(s) might levitate or react spasmodically. This variant is associated with degenerative disorders.
Of course, it is possible to have a combination of the three, but this case is even rarer than the disease itself.
To learn more about the disorder, visit Healthline, Mayo Clinic, or Alien Hand Syndrome First POV.
