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].
Citazione: | 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]. | |
Tipo: | Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico | |
Carattere della pubblicazione: | Scientifica | |
Presenza di un coautore afferente ad Istituzioni straniere: | No | |
Titolo: | Body schema and corporeal self-recognition in the alien hand syndrome | |
Autori: | Olgiati, E; Maravita, A; Spandri, V; Casati, R; Ferraro, F; Tedesco, L; Agostoni, E; Bolognini, N | |
Autori: | ||
Data di pubblicazione: | 2017 | |
Lingua: | English | |
Rivista: | NEUROPSYCHOLOGY | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): | http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/neu0000359 | |
Appare nelle tipologie: | 01 - Articolo su rivista |