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They also looked into akinetic mutism—a condition that leaves patients with no desire to move or speak, despite having no physical impediment.

In patients with akinetic mutism, the lesions were part of another network centered on the anterior cingulate cortex, which is thought to be involved in voluntary actions.

Patients with both alien limb syndrome and akinetic mutism have lesions in their brains, but there doesn’t seem to be a consistent pattern.

Now, a study analyzing the locations of brain lesions in these patients—and those who have akinetic mutism, in which people can scratch an itch and chew food placed into their mouths without being aware they’ve initiated these movements—are shedding light on how our brains know what’s going on with our bodies.

One patient had been totally mute and immobile for months, in a neurological syndrome called “akinetic mutism.”