Objective: The alien hand syndrome (AHS) is a rare neuropsychological disorder characterized by involuntary,yet purposeful, hand movements. Patients with the AHS typically complain about a loss of agencyassociated with a feeling of estrangement for actions performed by the affected limb. The present studyexplores the integrity of the body representation in AHS, focusing on 2 main processes: multisensoryintegration and visual self-recognition of body parts. Three patients affected by AHS following a righthemispherestroke, with clinical symptoms akin to the posterior variant of AHS, were tested and theirperformance was compared with that of 18 age-matched healthy controls. Method: AHS patients and controlsunderwent 2 experimental tasks: a same-different visual matching task for body postures, which assessed theability of using your own body schema for encoding others' body postural changes (Experiment 1), and anexplicit self-hand recognition task, which assessed the ability to visually recognize your own hands (Experiment2). Results: As compared to controls, all AHS patients were unable to access a reliable multisensoryrepresentation of their alien hand and use it for decoding others' postural changes; however, they could relyon an efficient multisensory representation of their intact (ipsilesional) hand. Two AHS patients also presentedwith a specific impairment in the visual self-recognition of their alien hand, but normal recognition of theirintact hand. Conclusion: This evidence suggests that the AHS following a right-hemisphere stroke mayinvolve a disruption of the multisensory representation of the alien limb; instead, self-hand recognitionmechanisms may be spared.

Olgiati, E., Maravita, A., Spandri, V., Casati, R., Ferraro, F., Tedesco, L., et al. (2017). Body schema and corporeal self-recognition in the alien hand syndrome. NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, 31(5), 575-584 [10.1037/neu0000359].

Body schema and corporeal self-recognition in the alien hand syndrome

Olgiati, E
;
Maravita, A;Spandri, V;Casati, R;Bolognini, N
2017

Abstract

Objective: The alien hand syndrome (AHS) is a rare neuropsychological disorder characterized by involuntary,yet purposeful, hand movements. Patients with the AHS typically complain about a loss of agencyassociated with a feeling of estrangement for actions performed by the affected limb. The present studyexplores the integrity of the body representation in AHS, focusing on 2 main processes: multisensoryintegration and visual self-recognition of body parts. Three patients affected by AHS following a righthemispherestroke, with clinical symptoms akin to the posterior variant of AHS, were tested and theirperformance was compared with that of 18 age-matched healthy controls. Method: AHS patients and controlsunderwent 2 experimental tasks: a same-different visual matching task for body postures, which assessed theability of using your own body schema for encoding others' body postural changes (Experiment 1), and anexplicit self-hand recognition task, which assessed the ability to visually recognize your own hands (Experiment2). Results: As compared to controls, all AHS patients were unable to access a reliable multisensoryrepresentation of their alien hand and use it for decoding others' postural changes; however, they could relyon an efficient multisensory representation of their intact (ipsilesional) hand. Two AHS patients also presentedwith a specific impairment in the visual self-recognition of their alien hand, but normal recognition of theirintact hand. Conclusion: This evidence suggests that the AHS following a right-hemisphere stroke mayinvolve a disruption of the multisensory representation of the alien limb; instead, self-hand recognitionmechanisms may be spared.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
alien hand syndrome, body schema, self, multisensory, stroke
English
2017
31
5
575
584
none
Olgiati, E., Maravita, A., Spandri, V., Casati, R., Ferraro, F., Tedesco, L., et al. (2017). Body schema and corporeal self-recognition in the alien hand syndrome. NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, 31(5), 575-584 [10.1037/neu0000359].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/174558
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