Meet the 13-Year-Old Girl With Mirror Movement and A Rare Disorder

It takes a while for children to become dextrous, which explains their uncoordinated movement sometimes. By age 10, both the left and right hemispheres of the brain can already communicate well with each other, which allows the child to move their two hands independently. But a rare condition called the mirror movement hinders a child from moving the two hands independently.

Much like playing the piano, both hands need to press different keys at a specific rhythm, but having that rare condition will be a problem learning how to play.

According to doctors, this condition is very rare, but for the first time, mirror movement is documented on a 13-year-old girl who was also diagnosed with the chromosomal disorder Turner syndrome a few years back.

Indeed, having the two conditions simultaneously is also rare and raises questions in the medical field on how could have this been possible or whether the two conditions are related.

Mirror Movement Disorder

According to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), mirror movement disorder is characterized by involuntary and persistent movements on one side of the body that mirrors the voluntary movements of the opposite side of the body.

Mirroring of behavior is common during the early stages of life, but it gradually disappears when motor pathways' neurological development is complete. But mirror movements that do not disappear and persist into adulthood are considered atypical.

According to Science Alert, the fundamental causes of mirror movement is still primarily based on speculations. Some of these said that it is because the brain is cross-talking due to the false synapses between neurons.

But in one-third of the cases, it is because of a mutation in some genes that impairs the development of the nervous system that instructions from either side of the brain were accidentally sent to both sides of the body.

In some cases, the cause is unknown, which means that there is still more to learn about the brain and its development. But NIH said that it's likely that mutations in other unidentified genes are responsible for mirror movement.

First Documented Rare Mirror Movement

In the case of the 13-year-old girl, she has a mirror disorder, mild abnormalities, and an absence of sexual characteristics. When the doctors checked her heart, they found that her aortic valve has two instead of three flaps, but they said that it still appeared healthy.

The child also displays speech and neurological signs that were expected of her age, yet when given a specific task of counting with her left hand, her right hand also involuntarily moves.

She underwent MRI scanning, but it did not reveal any unusual things in her brain. The medical staff at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research only said that her condition was just 'one of those things' as there are not enough resources to have a closer look at the girl's brain physiology.

Given that she was also diagnosed with Turner syndrome, which affects one in 2,000 women, it is hard to say if the two conditions are connected or if it was just a coincidence.

The child has since grown and is now 19 years old. The doctors said that despite her condition, she is basically doing alright. Her case study was published in BMJ Case Reports.