13.13 The Experiment

Slim Novel 13 -  http://adventuresofkimi.blogspot.com - See Homepage

13. Experimenting on the Brain

Dr Davidoff is stimulating surface points over the left thalamus through the tip of a small electric probe. With each electric stimulus he asks "What comes to your mind now, Mr Provenzano?" So far, Joe Pro has replied with a laugh. Now, however, "Oh! Oh! Oh! Doc! I feels lousy!"
   "About what, Mr Provenzano?"
  "I dunno! Jeez! Everything!  My head feels fulla shit - uh, 'scuse me, Miss Nurse. I jez feel like enda da world, like everyt'ing bad, like hell. "
   "That is from your anxiety center."
   "Now it go away. Thanks, Doc. Never wanna feel that again."
   Davidoff, indicates to the physicist standing by the table to move his magnet close and connect its output to the probe. And he takes the very small magnetic transmitter disc on his operating tray that Nurse McCabe has already put a smudge of glue on and with forceps adheres it to the point over the left thalamus where he has located the anxiety center.
   Before operation he explained to his assistants that magnetic stimulation gives an opposite effect from electric stimulation, an effect that inhibits. The experiment is what is called pathfinder - a test of a future system. It would be placing a small magnetic transmitter over the anxiety center and activating it by magnetic pulse so that free-floating anxiety could be blanked out. It could have several uses. First for mental disorders with high anxiety - like paranoid, hypochondriac, phobic. These patients could have anxiety minimized. But beyond is the idea of its use in normal persons. Even a temporary removal of anxiety could prove a boon to creative thinking because creativity and needed memory function are stopped up, blocked by the constant anxieties of normal life - worries you will get sick, become poor, have an accident. Davidoff envisions a future where humans might become super thinkers by having anti-anxiety implants activated at intervals. 
   He takes the magnetic probe and touches it to the disc over Joe Pro's anxiety center and signals the physicist to turn on the magnetic pulses.

Less than a minute passes.  Davidoff asks, "Mr Provenzano, what is in your mind?"
   Joe's voice is quiet; then: "Clear, Doc, real clear. Gee, it never been so clear in my head. Gee, why couldn't I a thought like this before? Why am I just a dumb Guinea? Why ain't I, like Gol'berg here, a smart Jew? An', boy! My mem'ry. What a mem'ry! Never had it like this before! I 'member ever' word I heard dis morning! My head clear a all da junk it used t'have, all da worries 'bout stupid stuff. Now I see what I gotta do. Geese, Doc! Can ya keep me t'inkin' like dis, always?"  
   Davidoff answers. "No, Joe. We need our anxieties to protect us from the dangers of living. But your experiment is going to help people get better at thinking by turning off anxieties temporarily. And I am guessing this experience is going to help you because even temporarily thinking as you are now is going to show good effects from now and will affect your life well in future."
   "Doc, I'll do da expereement again any time."

The effect of this experience on intern Goldberg starts an idea: to be a world-beater like Leo Davidoff. But even more profound changes take place inside the patient and subject of the experiment; namely, Mr Joe Pro.
    For next, click 13.14 Davidoff's Saturday Ward Rounds