Neurological disease identification help?

September 28, 2006 6:06 AM

Does anybody know the name of the neurological disease which breaks the connections of your passive feeling nerves but still leaves you able to control your limbs?

I remember seeing a documentary about a guy who had this rare (about ~50 people in the world?) disease which left him unable to feel where his hands or other parts of his body. In order to do day-to-day tasks, he would have to look at his feet to walk, and at his hands in order to pick up things, and only by keeping his eyes on his limbs could he consciously control them. Otherwise, they'd float or spasm.

posted by unrequited to Health & Fitness (4 answers total)

This sounds like what you describe, but a quick search of the medical literature turns up little else. This sounds like a question for ikkyu2.
posted by TedW at 6:47 AM on September 28, 2006

Best answer: There is a term, proprioception, that has to do with knowing where your limbs are in space, and a lack of it means you can move the body part if you look at it, but otherwise you're not really sure where it is. Proprioception on Wikipedia
posted by striker at 7:06 AM on September 28, 2006

Response by poster: THANK YOU Striker, this was exactly the head start I needed. Turns out it was a Horizons documentary about a specific type of neurological damage concerning Ian Waterman which resulted in his loss of proprioception.
posted by unrequited at 7:37 AM on September 28, 2006

Wow, this is so strange. My grandfather has this problem with his legs, and I didn't realise it was so uncommon. As I don't speak to my grandfather, and therefore can't ask him questions about the heredity of this disorder, I am glad to hear it affects such a small amount of people...
posted by starbaby at 12:45 PM on September 28, 2006