Dr Strangelove plagiarised by nature.
September 8, 2000 12:15 AM Subscribe
Dr Strangelove plagiarised by nature. What is going on here? Does any one no anything more about this wierd illness?
I got an article about "anarchic hand", a rare disorder that causes one of a person's hands to act in response to environmental triggers rather than in response to the person's will. In other words, a person with anarchic hand can't control what one hand does.
posted by wiremommy at 9:10 AM on September 8, 2000
posted by wiremommy at 9:10 AM on September 8, 2000
This sounds like what happens when the Corpus Callosum is severed. It's an operation they used to use to treat patients with severe uncontrollable seizures and what it does is separate the brain into two halves by cutting the communication bus between them. It stops the seizures by breaking the feedback loops (which is what a seizure is -- uncontrollable feedback, sort of like holding the microphone too near the speaker) and when I was in college it was still considered state-of-the-art treatment, but also a treatment of last resort.
In a sense the person becomes occupied by two minds, because the two frontal lobes can no longer communicate -- and they don't think the same way and don't always get the same answers. The left frontal lobe in most cases gets to keep control of the voice, so when you talk to such a person, you're talking to the left frontal lobe, but sometimes the left hand (run by the right frontal lobe) will get very agitated as if to express disagreement with what the voice is saying. They also have some trouble with activities requiring coordination between the two hands -- like typing, which I think is impossible. But to a surprising extent they can still coordinate, probably because the two minds both understand what's needed and each is individually coming up with its part of the job, like two people who know each other well getting something done without having to talk about it.
Individuals treated this way have interesting lives, and I'm really glad they don't do this operation anymore. (They have better drugs now for treatment of seizures.)
[Now that I follow the link I also see the article about anarchic hand. I don't know what was going on yesterday. Sorry about that.]
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:29 AM on September 8, 2000
In a sense the person becomes occupied by two minds, because the two frontal lobes can no longer communicate -- and they don't think the same way and don't always get the same answers. The left frontal lobe in most cases gets to keep control of the voice, so when you talk to such a person, you're talking to the left frontal lobe, but sometimes the left hand (run by the right frontal lobe) will get very agitated as if to express disagreement with what the voice is saying. They also have some trouble with activities requiring coordination between the two hands -- like typing, which I think is impossible. But to a surprising extent they can still coordinate, probably because the two minds both understand what's needed and each is individually coming up with its part of the job, like two people who know each other well getting something done without having to talk about it.
Individuals treated this way have interesting lives, and I'm really glad they don't do this operation anymore. (They have better drugs now for treatment of seizures.)
[Now that I follow the link I also see the article about anarchic hand. I don't know what was going on yesterday. Sorry about that.]
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:29 AM on September 8, 2000
I got the French Fuel thing earlier today, I was looking for a mention of the French adding fluoride to their gasoline.
posted by thirteen at 9:42 AM on September 8, 2000
posted by thirteen at 9:42 AM on September 8, 2000
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If this really does somehow relate to Dr. Strangelove, I'd appreciate it if you'd explain how.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:24 AM on September 8, 2000