Involuntary hand levitation associated with parietal damage: another alien hand syndrome

The alien hand syndrome (AHS) usually consists of an autonomous motor activity perceived as an involuntary and purposeful movement, with a feeling of foreignness of the involved limb, commonly associated with a failure to recognise ownership of the limb in the absence of visual clues. It has been de...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria 2001-09, Vol.59 (3-A), p.521-525
Main Authors: Carrilho, P E, Caramelli, P, Cardoso, F, Barbosa, E R, Buchpiguel, C A, Nitrini, R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
alien hand syndrome
Alzheimer Disease - complications
Alzheimer Disease - diagnosis
Alzheimer's disease
Atrophy - complications
Atrophy - diagnosis
Basal Ganglia Diseases - complications
Basal Ganglia Diseases - diagnosis
Brain Diseases - complications
Brain Diseases - diagnosis
Cerebral Cortex - pathology
cortico-basal ganglionic degeneration
Dyskinesias - etiology
Female
Hand
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Middle Aged
Neurodegenerative Diseases - complications
Neurodegenerative Diseases - diagnosis
NEUROSCIENCES
parietal lobe
Parietal Lobe - pathology
PSYCHIATRY
Stroke - complications
Stroke - diagnosis
Syndrome
Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
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Description
Summary:The alien hand syndrome (AHS) usually consists of an autonomous motor activity perceived as an involuntary and purposeful movement, with a feeling of foreignness of the involved limb, commonly associated with a failure to recognise ownership of the limb in the absence of visual clues. It has been described in association to lesions of the frontal lobes and corpus callosum. However, parietal damage can promote an involuntary, but purposeless, hand levitation, which, sometimes, resembles AHS. In the present study, four patients (cortico-basal ganglionic degeneration - n=2; Alzheimer's disease - n=1 and parietal stroke - n=1) who developed alien hand motor behaviour and whose CT, MRI and/or SPECT have disclosed a major contralateral parietal damage or dysfunction are described. These results reinforce the idea that parietal lobe lesions may also play a role in some patients with purposeless involuntary limb levitation, which is different from the classic forms of AHS.
ISSN:0004-282X
1678-4227
0004-282X
1678-4227
DOI:10.1590/S0004-282X2001000400007