Short Description or Definition
Alien hand syndrome (AHS) is a relatively rare manifestation of damage to specific brain regions involved in voluntary movement. The core observation is the patient report that one of his/her hands is displaying purposeful, coordinated, and goal-directed behavior over which the patient feels he/she has no voluntary control. The patient fails to recognize the action of one of his hands as his own. The hand, effectively, appears to manifest a “will of its own.” This unique involuntary movement disorder is characterized by coordinated, well-organized, and clearly goal-directed limb movements that would otherwise be indistinguishable from normal voluntary movement. This definition excludes disordered, non-purposeful, and dyskinetic movements associated with other involuntary movement disorders such as chorea,...
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Goldberg, G., Goodwin, M.E. (2011). Alien Hand Syndrome. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79948-3_1877
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79948-3_1877
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