Talk:Alien hand syndrome

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I moved this to alien hand syndrome, as there is no reason for Hand and Syndrome to have capitals. Unfortunately, some Wikipedia lists have disease names that are all capitals. This is not justified. JFW | T@lk 16:11, 8 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I remember a short story by SF writer Theodore Sturgeon called "Bianca's Hands" in which a man falls in love with a woman's hands who then take on a life of their own during her sleep and attempt to strangle him. Don't recall though if it is specifically stated that this is a case of Alien hand syndrome or if this is just how I remember it. Can someone confirm / deny ? Also, I'm new to Wiki, is this worth mentionning in Cultural references ? Thanks. [Helix]


Contents

[edit] Cultural References

Wouldn't this also describe Doc Ock in Spiderman2? If we're counting malevolent prostheses as alien hands, certainly his "tentacles" qualify. -t


[edit] Alien hand versus Anarchic hand

Alien hand and anarchic hand are two distinct neurological conditions caused by lesions to different, though related, parts of the brain. The description of alien hand actually appears to mix both alien and anarchic hand.

In alien hand, a sufferer has normal sensation but lacks the sense of "ownership" of the affected limb i.e. they have an impaired sense of their own body.

In anarchic hand, a sufferer has a limb that appears to act without their will.

We need an expert opinion on this one.


I have written extensively about this condition and have described several cases in the medical literature. It is my opinion that alien hand and anarchic hand are basically two different terms for the same syndrome. The original description by Brion and Jedynak in the French literature was: "le signe de la main etrangere", so you can translate from there as you will. The essential issue is the observation and description of the observed clinical phenomena which are really quite striking and difficult to mistake. There are a large variety of different terms that have come to the fore (eg. diagonistic apraxia as a term for "intermanual conflict") but the variation in terminology just serves to obscure the essential observations of the behavior and, more importantly, the experience of the patient as gleaned from their introspective verbal reports of how the whole situation feels. [GG]

here's a link to an article that is quite clear they are separate conditions. http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/openurl.asp?genre=article&issn=1354-6805&volume=3&issue=3&spage=191

[edit] plagarism?

Almost this entire article taken word for word from [1].

  • False claim. The link is honestly marked as one of the sources at the end of the article - Skysmith 12:00, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
    • well...my claim is Correct, regardless if there is a link to the original source, it is still prettymuch word for word. On top of that it is not cited as a source, it is only in the link section. It's still plagarism if you say who you plagarized from. anon-user
      • After reviewing the actual definition of Plagiarism I suppose I am incorrect in my wording. I maintain my position that it is wrong for someone to cut and paste from an article into Wikipedia. anon-user


[edit] NPOV Tag?

Why is there NPOV tag on this article? I've read through the article, and there doesn't seem to be any particular POV issues (though I am not an expert, I may have missed something). I say remove the tag. Ikh 10:17, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

seconded. Rob 17:10, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
Killed the NPOV tag. If anyone disagrees, feel free to put it back; please mention the exact problems here though when doing that. Ikh (talk) 19:43, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Causes and Treatment

Could someone please try to clear up this part of the article. As it stands, its a huge chunk of text - not very user friendly. I'm not doing the cleanup myself, since I don't know enough about the topic to surely know what is relevant and what isn't.--85.49.224.196 00:05, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

I think the last version was a little confusing ( "there is no known treatment yet but the treatment is to be involve in a task that can restore voluntary action or reduce interference"...- Isn't this type of info a little weird?). I hope doesn't bother anyone the little change I made... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 206.248.86.106 (talk • contribs).

I'm not familiar enough with the topic to make content changes, but I did go through and introduce some paragraph breaks that make the article a little more readable. - Elepsis 21:24, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How common is it?

Just wondering does anyone know how common the syndrome is? Obviously not very, but what about an order of magnitude estimate - how many "sufferers" in a million people? one, ten, only one per ten million? It would be a very interesting piece of information for the article, imho. Deuar 20:53, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

There are less than 100 reported cases in the medical literature. Now, does this mean that this is the total number of times that this has appeared? Probably not. The question is how often is it seen and recognized as such and how often does it go unnoticed or "hidden". I don't think anyone can really answer that question. I see a lot of patients with various forms of brain damage and am aware and looking for this problem. I might see 3 or 4 clear-cut cases a year out of hundreds of patients seen during that period. It is not a common observation, but neither is it something that would never be seen by a typical neurologist or physiatrist taking care of people with stroke and brain injury. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 141.158.72.157 (talk • contribs).

[edit] The Fly

Why is there no mention of The Fly in the "Cultural references" section? Is there a difference between what was depicted in the movie and AHS, or was it just accidently ommitted? It was the first thing I thought of when I read this article and I was surprised not to see it. (I don't trust my editing ability enough to add an entry of my own, and I apologize.)

I added "The Fly (1958 film)", after "The Beast with Five Fingers", and in front of "Dr.Stranglove, etc" I think the "The Fly" had some effect on Peter Sellers' Dr. Stranglove.204.80.61.10 19:12, 3 January 2007 (UTC)Bennett Turk

[edit] Strangelove

Is it accurate to say that Dr. Strangelove, in the movie of the same name, suffers from AHS? I thought his "alien" hand was a spring-loaded prosthesis, not a natural hand he couldn't consciously control.67.158.79.211 00:26, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure it was a gloved hand. cyclosarin 15:19, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
The movie was pretty accurate to the time period it was set in. I see no reason why that should have been a prosthetic limb at all. I don't recall anything that would imply it was supposed to be prosthetic. --Nofxjunkee 21:20, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] YouTube links

This article is one of thousands on Wikipedia that have a link to YouTube in it. Based on the External links policy, most of these should probably be removed. I'm putting this message here, on this talk page, to request the regular editors take a look at the link and make sure it doesn't violate policy. In short: 1. 99% of the time YouTube should not be used as a source. 2. We must not link to material that violates someones copyright. If you are not sure if the link on this article should be removed, feel free to ask me on my talk page and I'll review it personally. Thanks. ---J.S (t|c) 04:23, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A-Team episode

I remember there was an A-Team episode where Murdock insisted his left hand "Lefty" to have a will of its own. I don't remember which episode it was though. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.202.167.25 (talk) 02:23, 6 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Spoiler about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

(the following quote is a spoiler about Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows)


In Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, the magical hand previously given to Wormtail by Voldemort to replace his severed hand strangles him to death when Wormtail betrays Voldemort.


Shouldn't this quote be removed or t a spoiler warning be written there? I am about to start reading the book and now I know more than I wanted to ...

I don't think this really qualifies as much of a spoiler, as he's been reduced to a minor character in this book and his death is really pretty inconsequential. Also, his being killed by Voldemort for some reason or other isn't really all that unexpected.
One other thing, remember to sign your posts in talk pages with four tildes. 216.228.20.138 23:33, 22 August 2007 (UTC)