Stroke patients may have a new tool in their rehabilitation shed: a mirror. A study presented at the 6th World Stroke Congress in Vienna, Austria, in September 2008 suggests that adding mirror therapy to traditional rehabilitation programs may speed the recovery of stroke patients. Mirror therapy is used to treat phantom limb pain after amputation, but may now enhance the rehabilitation of hemiplegia after a stroke. Read more →

There is a rare neurological condition called alien limb syndrome in which a person has one or more limbs that will often move without conscious control. Little is known about the exact cause of this rare and interesting disorder. The person usually can have conscious control of the limb at times but not always. A classic manifestation of this syndrome is when the left arm, for example, will reach out and grab objects, fiddle with clothing or other body parts, or just move straight up or out and stay there. When asked by a neurologist to perform a specific action with the good arm, the alien arm may often hinder or impede the action of the good arm. The arm then often needs to be wrestled back to a resting position by the other arm. Read more →