04 May Today's term from psychology is Alien Hand Syndrome.

No, this isn’t something out of a scifi movie, but certainly could be for those living this everyday real-life nightmare. Alien hand syndrome occurs when a person’s arm appears to move involuntarily or grabs hold of things without the cognitive control of the person to whom the arm belongs. It is caused by a conflict between the left and right halves of the brain or mixing of damaged brain wires. Such a condition can often be traumatic for the sufferer who is terrified that their arm might start exhibiting inappropriate behavior in public, like manipulating objects or tools giving a “feeling that one's limb is foreign” or has a will of its own, according to the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. “I would make a telephone call and this hand would hang up the phone…I would light a cigarette and this one would put it out. I would be drinking coffee and this hand would dump it,” patient Karen Byrne described. Alien Hand Syndrom may occur when the Corpus Collasum, the nerve bundle that connects the two hemispheres of the brain, is severed and the two hemispheres then begin to act independently of each other.