Chapter 12 Section 12

Although she took Qianzhi to see her former attending physician several times, but because it was too far away, she finally decided to find a suitable hospital nearby.Because our whole family agreed that it is necessary for us to understand Chiori's current situation as soon as possible, and, in order for her to live independently in the future, we must also know how to cooperate. Later, the father found the son of an old friend, Dr. Baishi. One sunny afternoon in early summer, I took Chiori to visit Dr. Shiraishi's private hospital in Gaotai.Because it was an ordinary day, my father had to go to work, and my mother, who is a vocalist, was also busy preparing for the performance. I was the only one at home with free time, so I was responsible for bringing Chiori there.But when we followed the address and found Baishi Hospital hidden in the old residential area, there was a wooden sign saying "Closed today" at the door.

There are dense trees in the courtyard of Baishi Hospital, and you may miss it if you don’t look carefully.The streets here are peaceful and quiet, and even Chiori, who is walking among the crowd, is no longer nervous.The words on the wooden signboard for closed clinics are written with a brush, which looks very old and seems to have some history. However, my first impression of this hospital was not very good. Qianzhi’s previous hospital was a large general hospital with a brand new building and luxurious equipment. In comparison, this hospital looks very impressive. No sense of security, not what a hospital should look like.Moreover, we came to visit at the appointed time, but there was a closed sign on the door. Did the other party forget about this?Standing at the door, unhappiness welled up in my heart.Just as he was hesitant to ring the doorbell, the entrance door suddenly opened, and a woman in an apron walked out.

"Ah, sorry. Are you Kisaragi-san?" "I am." I said, Chiori immediately hid behind me. "The doctor is afraid that you won't be able to find him, so he asked me to come out and have a look. Hello, I'm Dr. Baishi's wife. Please come in." She nodded slightly towards us and opened the door. "Isn't it a medical break?" "That's why Baishi hung up because he was worried that other patients would come to see the doctor during the diagnosis and treatment." Hearing her say that made me feel a lot better.We follow her into a room that resembles a study rather than a consulting room.Then, she lowered her head hesitantly, and spoke again, her tone was full of determination.

"If I offend you, please forgive me, because I hate knowing the truth but deliberately keeping my mouth shut, so--I really feel very sorry about your matter." The doctor's wife blushed and lowered her head lower , "Please wait here, Baishi will come right away." After finishing speaking, he turned and left in a hurry. I smiled helplessly and sighed.Things like this will continue to happen in the future!Thinking of this made me feel a little depressed, but she was right, it was much better than pretending to be ignorant.After feeling relieved for a while, I realized that Chiori had been looking up at me.

Not long after, a man in a white robe who looked less than forty years old walked in. "Hi, I'm Shiraishi. This must be Chiori." Listening to the voice, I feel like a person with a calm personality.This was my first meeting with Dr. Shiraishi.Of course, when the other party stepped into the room, Chiori immediately hid behind her designated seat - behind me.Dr. Shiraishi tried hard to make Chiori talk, but she stubbornly hid behind me and didn't show her face.I explained that Chiori had always been like this.The other party replied in a low voice, he had already heard from his father, but he did not expect Chiori to be so stubborn.Immediately, he dismissed the idea of ​​tempting Chiori to speak, and invited us to sit down.As soon as I sat down, Chiori immediately sat next to me, trying desperately to push herself behind my back.

After sighing with a wry smile, Dr. Shiraishi said: "For this meeting, I have contacted Chiori's previous hospital in advance, and inquired about Chiori's condition through a classmate in that hospital. However, like PET These data and MRI are still not available..." I couldn't help but interjected to ask those professional terms that I hadn't heard, and he explained carefully, "PET is positron emission tomography, and MRI is magnetic resonance imaging. Although these are the same as CT, both It is a method to confirm the state of the body from outside the body, but PET and MRI are mainly based on the changes in the body's metabolism and blood flow to confirm the activity state of the human brain. Chiori has done these two tests, it is not difficult to imagine how much her parents had It’s been a lot of work trying to find a solution, and it’s really amazing that the information from that time has survived to this day.”

Although I couldn't understand 90% of Dr. Shiraishi's words, so I could only nod helplessly, but it also made me slightly change my mind about Qianzhi's parents - it seems that the actual situation seems to be somewhat different from what I thought.Seeing that I was still puzzled, Dr. Baishi seemed slightly troubled and kept thinking about how to explain it to me. "Only in conclusion, there is no damage to her brain, there is an amygdala, and there is no missing organ in the neocortex." "Sorry to interrupt. When you say that, do you mean that Chiori's brain is inherently lacking something?"

"That's right." Dr. Baishi nodded with embarrassment, "I have never encountered such patients, but there are indeed cases of congenital lack of part of the amygdala or hippocampus, both of which are organs of the brain. A more extreme example! Do you know what a no-brainer is?" I forgot where I saw it before, and I had a slight impression of this term, so I nodded. "Simply put, anencephaly is born without a brain. Therefore, it is incomprehensible that such a child should not be born with a skull to protect and accommodate the brain, and yet be born with a skull... Ah! Already." Doctor Shiraishi whispered, and continued with a little embarrassment, "So, as far as I know, Chiori is not severely mentally handicapped. No. Qianzhi’s IQ is seventy-eight, which is not low. I think all she needs is the understanding of her from the people around her. This is common to ordinary people, but it is very important to her. In addition, there is another point It's weird, maybe it's unbelievable, so I think it's worth discussing it with you."

Having said that, Dr. Baishi suddenly fell silent, his eyes moved to the side, and the serious expression on his face turned into a smile.I turned my head and saw that Chiori showed her face from behind me, staring at him without blinking. "Good afternoon, hello." Dr. Baishi said word by word. Chiori's gaze remained unchanged, she just nodded her head slightly as a salute, and then looked at me with an expression like she wanted to say something. "This is Dr. Shiraishi. Say hello to the doctor." I said. "Good afternoon, hello." Qian Zhi frowned slightly, finally opened her mouth slowly, and nodded in the same gesture as before.

"I don't know why, but she's very shy." The doctor turned his head and thought for a while, then said: "It seems to be true. This kind of example of almost pathological fear of others has its origin in the amygdala that I mentioned a few times just now. Some people say that the amygdala is in charge of people's emotions, although I can't say whether this statement is appropriate Suitable, but this organ does have a considerable relationship with people's emotions, and the amygdala is very developed in creatures that live in groups. "Biological creatures are instinctively afraid of other individuals, that is, other unknown species. For example, mice will never let their curiosity approach snakes or eagles, or they don't know their prey. I am afraid that even kittens will be scared when they see mice. have to escape. Moreover, this principle also applies to individuals of the same species.

"However, in this way, it will cause problems for birds or mammals, because their newborns have to stay close to their mothers after birth, and in order to breastfeed, mothers must expose the most vulnerable part of their bodies - the abdomen. On the other hand, those herbivores that would be endangered if they do not live in groups will also be afraid of other animals because of their instincts. Therefore, the amygdala plays the role of buffering this fear instinct, so it is classified in brain physiology Humans are organs in charge of emotions. Will it be difficult?" "Yeah." I scratched my head and nodded.Then he said very successfully, "But I can understand it in general." "I'm really sorry. In short, there is nothing wrong with Qianzhi's amygdala, and the brain waves have also been checked. The data shows that this part of her brain is even more active than ordinary people." Listening to Dr. Shiraishi's explanation, I can somewhat understand what he means. He means that Chiori is very sensitive to emotions! "But that brain wave...is a bit unbelievable!" The doctor coughed lightly, and continued, "Do you know the difference between the left brain and the right brain? Has anyone ever said that your right brain is more active?" "No—excuse me, there are left and right brains?" "That's right. You should know what hemiplegia is, right? Hemiplegia is caused by damage to part of the brain. If the damage is on the right brain, the symptoms of hemiplegia will appear on the left side of the body. Conversely, if it is on the left brain, the right side of the body will not be able to Move. But this cannot be generalized, because the severity of hemiplegia will vary according to the degree of brain damage. Human movement is closely related to the brain. It can even be said that human life activities are all under the jurisdiction of the brain. However, Even so, we still can't fully grasp the relationship between the two. Let's imagine the activity of the brain, imagine that there is a dwarf in the brain that curls up as much as it can, and shrinks in it-it is called The 'homunkulus (dwarf)' in Goethe's Faust - the dwarf's right foot is wounded, and the left foot is affected instead." "But Chiori is different. Indeed, she is clumsy in some places, but it's not that she can't move according to her own wishes. She can even play the piano." I retorted. "Piano—it's not bad." Dr. Baishi showed his original expression, and suddenly changed the subject, "By the way, are you thirsty? How about some black tea?" "Well, good." Although I was a little surprised to be asked this suddenly, I was really thirsty.Chiori also answered in the same way. "Yuki, please bring me some tea!" Dr. Shiraishi stood up and shouted into the corridor, "My home is connected to the hospital—where did we just talk about? By the way, it's a dwarf. Anyway , The left and right division of the brain should not be directly related to Chiori's situation. You said Chiori can play the piano, right? Then there should be no problem with the motor area of ​​her cerebral cortex. "Left brain and right brain are commonly used nouns. In physiological terms, they refer to the left hemisphere and right hemisphere of the neocortex. This statement should not be confused. The neocortex is the high-level mental activity. However, it would be an exaggeration to say that only humans have high-level mental activities. We now not only know that apes have the ability to learn, but even dogs can dream, which proves that their neocortex is also active. Recently, academic circles have also found that , The neocortex of the brain is like a map, divided into many different areas, each area is responsible for different mental activities, or a certain area is the main area, driving other areas to work together. In addition, as I mentioned just now, Since the discovery of brain waves, our technology has advanced to the point where we can use changes in metabolism and blood flow to confirm from the outside of the human body which parts of the brain are particularly active when a person is performing certain activities. "Now let's talk about the frontal lobe. The part of the brain called the 'lobe', in addition to the frontal lobe, there are four parts: the temporal lobe, the parietal lobe, and the occipital lobe. In addition, the area that is smaller than the 'lobe' is the 'lobe' "District", if it is distinguished according to the world map, "leaf" is the country, and "district" is equivalent to the province or county in the country. This should be easier for you to understand!" At this time, there was a knock on the door, and Mrs. Baishi brought in black tea.My first impression of her was that she was calm and self-possessed, but now that I saw her gently waving to Chiori, I realized that she also had a gentle side.She nodded to us and then left the room. "Please use it, you are welcome. It would be better to add a slice of lemon to black tea, and you can take in more vitamin C. Since the human body cannot synthesize vitamins by itself, if there is a chance, the more the better." Dr. Shiraishi said. I put lemon slices into the tea, and Chiori immediately imitated my actions.I thought to myself that Dr. Shiraishi never forgot to give an opportunity to teach even when drinking tea, and he was also surprisingly persuasive. "I just talked about the divisions of the brain. It is generally said that the cerebral cortex can be divided into eighteen regions according to the structure of nerve cells, but there are different opinions on whether this distinction is appropriate. This is from Germany in the twentieth century... Uh, or Austria? In short, it was a partition made by a scholar Budman. He named the first forty-seven districts with numbers 1 to 47, but skipped the middle numbers and directly used 52 as the last district As for why he skipped the middle four numbers, it is still a mystery." After speaking, Dr. Baishi stopped to take a sip of tea. He was the one talking almost from beginning to end, and of course he was thirsty.However, I, who was shaken by hearing the name of the country for the first time, glanced at Chiori inadvertently, and found that she was secretly watching me very anxiously.I gave her a "nothing" smile, and the uneasiness on her face still persisted. "Leaving aside the mystery of the century, let's first explain the respective functions of these blocks - this is a hot topic in brain physiology in recent years - not only the physiological movement of 'walking' I mentioned just now, but also mental behavior All are closely related to brain activity. Simply put, just the act of "seeing", from the rotation of the eyeballs, the contraction of the lens, the optic nerve receives and integrates information such as colors, backgrounds, objects, etc., and then integrates with the past "seeing" Experience and comparison are all activities of the brain. "And the more advanced the mental behavior is, the more so it is, but it is very difficult to obtain further confirmation by testing the subjects. For example, we want to know the brain waves when the brain is performing mathematical operations, and the subjects also do the same. Instructed to start doing math, but during this time, the subject's mind is not necessarily only thinking about math operations - it would be strange if this is the case - he may think 'seems a bit hungry, wait to finish the calculation Just go eat', or maybe think 'Don't be distracted! Concentrate on math'. Of course, the interviewees' interviews will be accepted from the beginning, but the researcher must also make up Actively aware of emotional changes, in this process, researchers often add too much subjective consciousness, so it is difficult to determine what kind of thinking the brainwaves obtained from the test are based on. Even so, through the unremitting efforts of scholars from various countries, it has now been Understand the general function of these partitions. "Let's go back and look at Chiori's situation. The brain wave activity in area 44 of her frontal lobe association area - commonly known as Broca's area - is not frequent. Broca's area is an area with a clearer function in the frontal lobe , as you know, it handles most of the language functions. I find it incredible because she hasn't suffered any obvious damage to this area, but no matter how you check it, the results show that the brain wave activity, metabolic rate, The blood flow is very weak. It does not mean that the brain cells in this area are dead, but there is no clear evidence of its activity. Of course, these few tests alone cannot make a conclusion, but my classmate is giving me the information of Qianzhi Shi also said that this part of Chiori's brain seems to be in a state of hibernation. "It is often said that the vast majority of the human brain is not used, which is true. One of the biggest functions of the human brain is to preserve memory, but basically, the brain cells responsible for this part are not very active. It's not that they are dead, but they are in a state similar to hibernation, so it is speculated that some of Chiori's brain cells should have fallen into hibernation due to innate unknown reasons, and, in order to make up for the stagnation of the left hemisphere of the brain, the right hemisphere His activities became more active than ordinary people. Unfortunately, I did not find a case similar to Chiori's situation, nor did I find an effective treatment—at least not in China." Halfway through Dr. Shiraishi's explanation, I began to frown, because there are more and more proper terms in medicine.I know he explained it very carefully and worked hard to understand most of it.In order to explain the situation of Qianzhi, I think the appearance of these proper nouns is also inevitable. "Then what should we do better?" After hesitating for a while, I finally asked. "I can't answer this for you yet. Qianzhi's condition is not due to brain damage, so surgery is useless. To be honest, there is still too little information. I can only suggest that you take Qianzhi to a well-equipped facility." The hospital will conduct a more precise examination to fully understand her symptoms and causes. However, as I have said repeatedly, the human brain still has many mysteries unknown to humans, so I cannot guarantee that a treatment will be found after a thorough examination. Just now The congenital factors mentioned are also inferred because no acquired causes have been found. "I don't know if it's appropriate to say this. What I'm going to say next is not based on the doctor's position, it's purely my personal opinion—if I were a researcher, I would use Qianzhi's test data as research materials, because her situation is not There is no precedent to follow, and there may be some new discoveries. In other words, no matter who the doctor of Qianzhi is, it is difficult for them to simply regard Qianzhi as a patient, and they will definitely want to study the case of Qianzhi. In this way , they had to have Chiori conduct many tests to obtain a large amount of data, and these tests would be too many for you to imagine, and each test was in charge of its own expert, not to mention the various inspections before the test. In other words, Chiori There's bound to be a lot of exposure, and that's what worries me. "You said that Chiori would be extremely nervous whenever she saw a stranger. Although this may be due to the psychological pressure caused by her obstacles, looking at it from another perspective, this psychological pressure may have existed since she was a child. And formed her current obstacle. If so, these tests will only make her psychological pressure continue to increase, so I feel in a dilemma. Take these tests, and unfortunately, I can't assure you that the final results will be good for her. "I'm really ashamed. I'm really not a good doctor when I say in front of patients that natural methods can guarantee a cure. However, the actual situation is so realistic. Everyone believes that only those who want to know, understand, and grasp the status quo It is true that our understanding of the human brain is getting deeper and deeper, but this and Chiori’s problem are two different things. Of course, I believe that one day, the two will be on the same level. But sadly, not now. And based on what I heard from your father, the girl has been hit hard recently, and considering this, I am even more hesitant to put more pressure on her." My father even told Dr. Shiraishi about those things... I turned my head to look at Qianzhi. It was unbelievable that she looked directly at Dr. Shiraishi, and quietly listened to what Dr. Shiraishi said with a serious expression that seemed to know her—by the way, Qianzhi Zhizhi had this expression when facing the piano. "If I were Qianzhi's guardian, I wouldn't take any action until her fearful habits changed. Isn't she only eight or nine years old? It's still the age when the brain is developing, and when the personality grows to be stable and complete , perhaps to some extent relieved the psychological pressure when in contact with strangers, and it would not be too late to do various tests at that time. Or, at that time, Chiori's hibernating brain cells had already woken up, and our conversation today was nothing but worrying! But this is only an optimistic idea. "In order for the brain to grow stably, love from the surroundings is absolutely indispensable. Although no physiological evidence can be given, this is a matter of course! Especially this child's sensitivity to emotions is stronger than ordinary people. Like today, as long as I smiled at her, and she seems to have gradually realized my kindness, isn't it? So you just need to raise her with a normal heart, don't worry too much. However, in terms of schooling, ordinary schools may not be suitable for her. Because inevitably there will be situations that force learning or provoke unnecessary feelings of inferiority. Am I being cruel when I say that?" At this time, the person who shook his head sharply was actually Chiori.Dr. Baishi and I looked at each other dumbly, and were stunned. The cup he had just picked up had been hanging in mid-air. Chiori didn't seem to understand our reaction, so she called out "Ah!" to attract our attention.The cup that stopped in mid-air slowly fell to the coffee table as if the spell had been lifted. "Oh! I really lost to you!" Dr. Baishi stroked his neck with his right hand and sighed, "Qianzhi, don't worry, although I don't know how much you understand, you seem to understand what we are talking about! Really, I really should reflect on it, I still can’t really grasp the situation with only the data.” Dr. Baishi kept shaking his head and sighing, but the expression on his face was very gentle, “Does this kind of unpredictable reaction happen often?” So I told Dr. Shiraishi everything about Chiori playing the piano, overreacting to my words, and being very dependent on me. He nodded and said that he should ask me about these things first, and then he pursed his lips and thought.That's when I learned the term "scholar's syndrome" from a doctor. "This is just a name for a symptom, but it is not clear whether the cause of this symptom is the same. This is just my speculation-I think Chiori may understand that you have lost something important because of that incident ... No, she should have been very aware that she wasn't expressing it in words, but she was clearly showing guilt, begging for forgiveness and all that sort of emotion, don't you think? "Reality can easily go beyond our comprehension occasionally. I had this experience once before, and I realized it again today. It never occurred to me that Chiori could understand abstract terms such as inferiority complex or cruelty, after all, the so-called The abstract concepts cannot exist without language. I always feel that my nagging long speeches may have been organized in her mind long ago." At this time, both of us looked at Qianzhi in unison, but she stopped frowning and sucking the sour lemon slices, and didn't notice us at all, we couldn't help but smiled wryly at each other. "Your left hand—it's really a pity." The doctor suddenly spit out this sentence. "Well, but it can't be helped." I replied unconsciously. The surroundings fell into a brief silence.Suddenly, an immature female voice of "Drink -" broke the silence, and it sounded like it was nearby.Chiori was taken aback, and raised her head to look around with a surprised expression. "I'm sorry, my daughter is probably back. She is practicing kendo. She is younger than Qianzhi, and she doesn't know who she looks like. She is very naughty." The smile on Dr. Shiraishi's face looked very happy. I checked the time and found that we had been talking for a while, so I said goodbye and left.I remember that Dr. Shiraishi and his wife escorted us out of the entrance together, and the voice of the girl just now echoed in Xiangwan's residential area. This was my first meeting with Dr. Shiraishi. After that, he continued to see Chiori as the attending physician. There was no need to prescribe medicine for Chiori's condition, so every time I went, he mainly reported Chiori's current situation. There are also books to borrow.I borrowed the book to read it, because I started to actively want to do something for Chiori. I only discussed with Dr. Shiraishi once, hoping to let Chiori do a CT or PET examination, because I really hoped that he could have a more accurate grasp of Chiori's situation, so Chiori went to the nearest hospital under his introduction. I was hospitalized in the University Hospital for a week.Originally, that hospital didn't allow Dr. Baishi to participate in the consultation, but I don't know how he coordinated it, and finally he was able to listen to the examination results. "PET is based on the principle of photography, using the shortest two minutes to make images of brain activity..." While listening to the doctor's explanation, I looked at the PET films. The things on them looked disgusting, like two mushrooms connected back to back, and the folds of the brain could be clearly seen.White dots appear here and there in these X-ray-like dark gray images. "It's amazing that the symptoms of the disease can be judged from these images." I said. "It will be clearer to see this way." The doctor overlapped these development films, "The white area represents the activity of brain cells. We fixed the depth of the shooting and divided it into several developments. A little bit in front of the center, from our perspective Look at the upper position. Is there a part that is always bright on the left and right? This is the amygdala, which means that her activity in this part is very active. In addition, this is the development when she listens to music. On the left side - this is the right brain - there is also a very obvious white part in the middle. PET is like this, it will show the active part of the brain with white light - well, it's all stacked up, so it can be seen Is it clearer?" I let out a "oh", and found that the other parts looked a little dim and fuzzy because of the overlap of the film, but in the center of the right, just opposite to the white part when listening to music, there was a thick, like being pressed. Flat round shadow.No matter which display the dark part of the film, it looks like a very deep black. Looking at them, I couldn't help but think of the huge and quiet craters on the surface of the moon.