Questions posted in the Neurology and Neurosurgery Forum have been answered by doctors from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

Question Title: mirror movements

Forum: Neurology Forum
Topic: Movement

I would like to know if anyone has had any experience with patients that have automatic movement of the opposite hand/forearm muscles when performing a task or moving one hand/arm. Its been going on since I was a child. Nerve studies on the muscles of the hands revealed that they were firing simultaneously. Thank you.

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Dear Robert,
thank you for your question. Mirror movement is considered a " soft neurologic sign" along with others such as left right confusion, awkwardness, inability to name fingers, etc. These signs usually present since childhood, are so often in normal children. Some authorities have tried to link their presence to a wide variety of conditions such as hyperactivity syndrome and "minimal brain syndrome", learning disability.
The point is the majority of these children are in fact normal neurologically.
I am not sure if anyone knows the mechanism behind it, but your comment about the EMG findings is correct and is well known.
Good luck and I hope the information helps.
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