ABSTRACT

Because of damage to the frontal lobes or the corpus callosum connecting left and right hemispheres, these patients experience "autonomous" actions hy one or more limbs. The actions arc autonomous in the sense that the patient cannot voluntarily control them, nor do they experience the behaviors (nor even the limb itself) as their own. Like Lhennitte's patients, the "alien" actions are usually triggered by environmental cues. For example, patients may experience a "struggle hetween the hands as each attempts to answer the telephone," or even more drastically, "one hand tried to turn left when the other hand tried to turn right while driving a car," (Doody & JankoviC, 1992; p. 807). Marchetti and Della Sala (1998) report a patient who, "at dinner, much to her dismay saw her left hand taking some fish bones from the leftovers and putting them into her mouth," (p.196).