요즘들어 키보드를 바꾼 탓인지, 자꾸만 가장 기본적인 문장에서 오타를 낸다.
외계손 증후군이란 뇌량(좌뇌와 우뇌를 연결하는 부분)에 문제가 생긴 이들에게서 드물게 발생하는 증상인데, 주로 사용하는 손의 반대편 손을 제대로 통제 할 수 없는 현상을 수반한다.
환자는 물론 ‘외계손’화 된 손의 존재를 자각할 수 있고 감각도 느끼지만, 통제가 불가능하다.
대부분의 경우 ‘외계손’은 아무런 의미 없는 움직임을 보인다. 그러나 정말 드물게, 이 ‘외계손’이 어떠한 목적을 가지고(purposeful) 움직이기도 한다는 것이다. 이를 테면, 옷을 입을때 정상인 손이 단추를 채우려고 하면, 외계손은 반대로 단추를 풀기 위해 정상손을 방해한다. 옷을 찢기도 한다. 어떤 실험에서는 최면으로 인위적인 ‘외계손’의 암시를 준 사람에게 슈퍼마켓에서 몇가지 물건을 사오도록 시켰는데, 그를 숨어서 관찰한 결과 ‘외계손’의 암시를 받은 손이 자신도 모르게 ‘아무 물건이나 훔쳐서 주머니에 넣는’ 광경이 목격되기도 했다. 물론 그 자신은 그러한 행위를 자각하지 못했다.
외계손 증후군에서 가장 주목할만한 부분은 바로 이 ‘퇴행적인 행위’다. 분명 손은 정상적인 뇌가 자각하지 못하는 행위를 하게 되는데, 이것이 뭔가 의미를 갖는 행위로 나타난다는 것이다. 대부분의 경우 그것은 반사회적이며, 난폭한 행위로 나타난다. (때리기, 꼬집기, 훔치기, 부수기 등등)
아직 이 분야에 대해 깊은 연구가 선행된 바 없기 때문에, 또한 전공도 아닌 분야기 때문에 뭐라 짚어 말할 수는 없지만 내 생각에 아마도 이것은 존재가 예상되기는 하지만 누구도 존재함을 증명하지 못한 ‘무의식의 문제’를 해결하는 실마리가 될 수도 있을 것 같다.
[#M_ ‘외계손 증후군’에 관한 몇가지 스크랩 more.. | ‘외계손 증후군’에 관한 몇가지 스크랩 less.. |
Alien hand syndrom is a rare side effect of Corpus Callostomy surgery
that has been performed on Epilepsy sufferers.
Can you tell me more about it?
혹시 이것에 대해 더 알려줄 수 있나요?
ALIEN HAND OR ALIEN LIMB SYNDROME This is a situation in which the limb seems to be functionally unconnected to the body, but is not paralyzed. The patient has no voluntary controll over the limb.It has been described after callosotomy, and also in corticicobasal degeneration. It is similar to disturbances related to the parietal lobe, where patients seem to lose the knowledge of certain parts of their bodies.
Turns Limbs Monstrous
By E.J. Mundell
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000221/hl/dsb_51.html
2-21-00
외계손 증후군이
팔을 괴물로 만든다.
E.J. Mundell
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) — Like victims in a horror film, patients with a rare syndrome known as ‘alien hand’ feel disassociated from one of their own hands, insisting that the hand is ‘possessed’ by a force outside their control.
The condition typically arises in the aftermath of brain surgery, stroke, or infection. Patients can feel sensation in the hand, but believe that it is not part of their body, and that they have no control over its movements. In some cases, ”alien hands can perform complex acts such as trying to tear clothes or undoing buttons,” explain neurologist Dr. R. Inzelberg and colleagues at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, Israel.
Writing in the February issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, the Israeli team describes a case of ‘alien hand’ associated with a possible case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a degenerative brain disorder caused by infectious particles called prions.
The patient in question, a 70-year-old Argentinean man, underwent a swift neurological decline — including hallucinations, memory dysfunction, behavior change and alien hand — possibly caused by CJD. “At times,” the researchers report, “(his) left arm would spontaneously rise in front of the patient during speaking…. He was unaware of these movements until they were brought to his attention.”
Isolated reports have linked alien hand with CJD in the past. In one case, “the alien limb performed complex actions such as unbuttoning (the patient’s) blouse and removing a hair pin.” In another, a woman found herself “powerless” to prevent her hand from repeatedly touching her eyes and mouth.
According to the study authors, various types of brain injury appear to trigger distinct subtypes of alien hand. For example, in right-handed persons, injury to the corpus callosum — a bundle of nerves connecting the two halves of the brain — can give rise to “purposeful” movements of the left hand, while injury to the brain’s frontal lobe can trigger ”grasping” and other purposeful movements in the dominant (right) hand. In other cases, “aimless movements of either hand” occur in patients affected by injury to the brain’s cerebral cortex. And the authors note that more complex alien hand movements — such as unbuttoning or tearing of clothes — are usually associated with brain tumors, aneurysm or stroke.
In every case, patients retain sensation of feeling in the affected hand or arm, but lose any sense of control over the renegade limb. “They may struggle to stop the movements,” Inzelberg told Reuters Health, “restrain the limb, punish it, talk to it, personify or refer to it as a third person. The may even say that an evil spirit exists in the hand. In a sense the hand is the ‘Other.”’
The study authors note that one common factor between the diseases associated with the phenomenon is that all these disorders involve several parts of the brain at once, suggesting that simultaneous damage to the parts of the brain that control movement may be responsible. In essence, Inzelberg explained, there is a “disconnection between parts of the brain which are involved in motor (voluntary muscle) control.”
Unfortunately, there is currently no treatment for alien hand. According to the Israeli researcher, all patients can do to control the problem is to keep the hand “occupied” by having it hold an object.
Based on their findings, the investigators advise that Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease be added to the list of neurological disorders that prompt ‘alien hand.’ Inzelberg says future studies are planned “to understand better the mechanisms involved in this rare condition.”
SOURCE: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 2000;68:103-104.
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