Alien Hand Syndrome

Alien hand syndrome, sometimes called Dr. Strangelove syndrome, is a rare neurological condition in which a person's hand, most often the left, performs purposeful movements, such as reaching for or manipulating objects, without the person's conscious intention or sense of control over it. Patients typically describe the limb as feeling as if it belongs to someone else, and they may need their unaffected hand to physically restrain the affected one. The syndrome most often follows surgical division of the corpus callosum connecting the brain's two hemispheres, but can also arise from stroke, brain tumor, aneurysm, infection, or degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, corticobasal degeneration, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, generally involving damage to the frontal, parietal, or occipital lobes.