Y: Hey Don, can you pass the stapler? [BEAT] Don? The stapler? [LOUDER] Yo! Don!
D:I asked you to pass the stapler.
D: Oh, sorry. I was just studying my hand. It's so amazing.
Y: I never knew you were so vain.
D: No, I mean, hands in general are amazing. They're so intricate and sensitive, and so useful.
Y: That's true. Just be thankful you don't have alien hand syndrome.
D: What's that?
Y: It's a neurological disorder that causes people to lose control over their hands. The cause is usually some sort of brain damage. Injury to the fibers that connect the left and right halves of the brain can make your non-dominant hand make involuntary grasping motions. Damage to the frontal lobe can cause the same result in the dominant hand.
D: Wait a second. Are you saying that the brain damage causes the hands to have spasms?
Y: Sort of. But other brain problems, like a stroke, brain tumor, or aneurysm, can make either hand do more complex things like button or undo button and take off clothes. And the truly strange thing is that the person isn't even aware of what the hand is doing until he happens to notice.
D: Weird. So it's as though the hand really is a sort of alien being.
Y: Yep. People with AHS often think that the affected hand is possessed and don't recognize it as part of their body.
D: Yikes. Hands are still amazing, but I suppose they can be a bit scary, too.
Y: And useful. Now how about that stapler.
