critique wanted Nightmare Shiny's Last Story

[Shiny Silvermoon 4,003]

The story that I am about to tell you is very much different from the two others. In fact, it will be the complete opposite of the previous stories. Where there were paranormal and unexplainable, there will be pure science and facts. Sometimes, science can be more cold and crual than a pack of werewolves or a cursed valley. The case of patient H.M. aka Henry Molaison is one of those stories where science is terrifying...

Before we can start, I must explain to you what is happening in your brain as you are listening to my scary stories. If you wonder why, it's because it's important for a better understanding of the story. So, as you listen to me, fresh new memories are stimulating your neurons, memories of the words and images you see at this very moment. This is what we call short term memories, memories of the "right now". But, when this scary story will be over, those short term memories will slowly begin to vanish and, after a certain amount of time, you'll forget them. Why? Because memory is affected by time. However, by using your medial temporal lobe, you can store specific elements of those memories! This phenomenom will then result in the creation of long term memories! And from there the horror can begin...

Our story begin in 1939, when a neurosurgeon named William Beecher Scoville started his career at the Hartford Hospital, in the Connecticut. At this time, neurosurgery was a completely virgin field of science. Scoville and his colleagues were the first to really experiment on the human brain. They didn't understand what they were doing but who care? They just needed to pretend that they were in control! When you wear a white labcoat, you don't have to think about the consequences of your actions! People will believe you if you tell them that you can cure them by cutting off a part of their brain! You just need to try it and see what it will do...

Scoville quickly became known in the world of neurology for his researches on... lobotomy. The lobotomy is a surgical intervention during which a metal tool is inserted into someone's head in order to sever the frontal lobe from the other parts of the brain. A surgery that was leaving the patient lethargic with their brain being dysfonctionnal. Once used like a "miraculous cure" for people suffering of psychosis, it is now seen as one of the most infamous surgeries of the 20th Century... Scoville would perform hundreds of lobotomies during his life. However, after the arrival of new laws banishing the practice of lobotomies, he needed to find something new, something never done before to avoid becoming a relic of the past...

Scoville made up a completely new experimental procedure that was supposedly going to relieve those who suffer from mental illnesses. He then trained himself on two women with either psychosis or epilepsy, which sort of worked but only by luck and with big side effects, before taking the surgery to the next level. To do that, Scoville needed to find a new patient...

Born in 1907, Henry Molaison was living a normal life until his bike accident, when he was 7 years old. He got hit on the head very hard causing brain damages which took the form of epilepsy. It gave Henry daily seizures, during which he had random absences for variable amount of times on an almost daily basis. When he was a kid, the seizures were manageable for Henry since they were small seizures that were lasting only a few seconds but, as he growed up, things changed. His seizures were increasing in frequency and intensity with the years until that, at 15 years old, he experienced his first major seizure. Life became very hard for Henry because of his illness. He wasn't able to keep up with school, he wasn't able to socialize with anyone and he wasn't able to get a job either. He was also taking several different drugs to ease thing a little bit for him. Henry and his family was desperate for a miracle that would cure him and this is when Dr W. B. Scoville made him an offer...

When Scoville heard about Henry, he thought that he was the perfect test subject for his experimental procedure so he got in touch with him. Offering him a miraculous treatment that would perhaps give him back a normal quality of life, Henry didn't hesitate. So in 1957, when Henry was 27 years old, the surgery began...

Remember, earlier, when I said that the medial temporal lobe is where all your memories are stored? Dr Scoville carried out his surgery on Henry which consisted in... drilling the medial temporal lobe out of his skull. And since the brain has no pain receptor, the neurosurgeon digged a hole in his head and ripped out a part of his brain while he was awake.

After the surgery, Henry's seizures actually ceased completely. He was cured but at what price? Now, this is the difficult part of the story because I need you to learn something complexe about the brain in order to fully comprehend Henry's problem. If you wanted to keep in mind a sentence that you heard, you would need to repeat it to yourself over and over again so you don't forget about it. This would keep the short term memory alive. But if you wanted to remember about it far in the futur, like a few days later, you'd need to process this memory through your hippocampus to turn it into a long term memory. The thing is that the Hippocampus is a part of the medial temporal lobe, the piece of brain removed from Henry. So after the surgery, every single memory made by Henry disappeared. Only able to recall what happened a few minutes ago, he was no longer able to remember what was the name of his first dog, the address of his house, his age or what he just said... or what he just said... or what he just said... or what he-... did I already said that?

But memory isn't just about remembering. Memory is also our only tool to understand time. It's the only thing that can help us to comprehend when exactly we are.

Picture this, you are in a house with no window, no calendar and no access to anything else that could allow you to know what day it is. However, you are given a cupcake, everyday during lunch time, and the color of the cupcake depends on the day it is. You receive a red cupcake when it's Monday, a green cupcake when it's Tuesday, a blue cupcake when it's Wednesday, etc. Now, imagine that it's Wednesday which means that you are supposed to get a blue cupcake but this is not what happen. Instead of a blue cupcake you are given a red cupcake, meaning that it's Monday. Still, you know that it's not Monday. Why? Because you remember that you ate a green cupcake yesterday which means that yesterday was Tuesday and, since yesterday was a Tuesday, you know that logically today is a Wednesday and not a Monday.

What I'm trying to show you is that you know when you are because you have the ability to remember. But what if you were like Henry Molaison? What if, just like him, you were unable to remember anything older than a few minutes ago? How would you know what day, what month or what year it is? You could take a look at a calendar to know but then you'd forget it a couple minutes later.

When you have no memory, you also can't plan what you'll be doing tomorrow because you wouldn't remember about it. Now try to spend just a single week without thinking about the futur. This is almost impossible because you'll eventually find yourself thinking something like "After work, I must go to the grocery because otherwise I'll have nothing to eat for diner." We are constantly transposing ourselves into the futur without even knowing.

We are always thinking about the past or the futur. None of us is truly living in the present. But Henry was living in this reality where things such as past and futur don't exist, a reality where there is no time. We are all living inside of time but Henry was living outside of it. He was living in a world that we will never understand, a world where your past won't harm you, a world where fear of the futur is impossible...

In fact, Henry was the only man who ever lived in a permanent present tense.

Back to the story, researchers from all around the world were amazed by Henry Molaison, who was know as patient H.M. by the scientific community to keep his identity a secret, because the tests ran on him were rewritting the knowledge they had about the human memory. Because of him, the concept of long term and short term memory now existed. When people heard about patient H.M., the entire world became fascinated by him. At that time, Henry was the most famous person in the world and he had no idea because, if someone ever told him, he almost instantly forgot about it.

So far, everything was perfectly rational to researchers. Henry lost his hyppocampus so he wasn't able to remember anything which was perfectly logic to scientists. But it was until the strange event that occured...

One day, Henry was asked to draw a plan of the inside of his house by memory. Since it was virtually impossible for him to use his memory, they expected him to fail. What Henry did, at this very moment, shocked the scientific community. He... drew a plan of the inside of his house without any problem. Henry, the man unable to remember, remembered about something...

Henry then began to remember things like the layout of the hospital, the name of people around him, to the new technologies that appeared over time and how to use them.

Those weird phenomenoms leaded the scientists to a new discovery. They found out that there is not just one type of memory but many which are all managed by different parts of the brain. For exemple, we all learned how to walk just like we all learned maths but unlike maths we don't need concentration to walk but remembering what makes 23 + 5 yes. The reason why is because those are different kinds of memories. You can consciously recall how to do maths with efforts while you can recall how to walk without efforts because there is a difference between the implicit memory and the explicit memory. An implicit memory is something that you learned by doing just like walking. In the case of Henry, he used an implicit memory that he got from walking around his house so many times that he got used to it enough that it became what it is : an implicit memory. Then, he was able to use this implicit memory to draw a plan of the inside of his house because, while he was unable to counsciously remember things, he was still able to remember things uncounsciously since it wasn't managed by his hyppocampus but by his perirhinal cortex which he still had. This is how the man with no memory was able to remember.

So far, I've been describing you Dr Scoville as a bad guy who did evil scientific things to Henry that broke him but this is all a big lie, a big twist that I was waiting until the very end of the story to pull out. Scoville was a good neurosurgeon who saved so many people and did great things, during his life. His goal was not to take away the memory of Henry, his goal was to cure him and he actually did cure him from his seizures but he simply didn't expect the consequences of removing a part of Henry's brain. The science of neurosurgery was still very young and no one was really aware of how important each parts of the brain are. It's because of men like Scoville that we now know about the fragility of the brain and it's because of men like him that we have discovered things on the human brain like we did in this story.

So is it okay to drill the inside of someone's skull for the benefit of everyone? Was it morally acceptable what Scoville did? And what about Henry? Should we consider him like an abused man who had a sad life after the surgery or like a lucky man who had nothing to worry about anymore? There are so many questions that I'd like you to give your opinion on! But there is also one that is more personnal and that I'd like you to reflect on in your daily life. Think about it, Scoville was a good man who accidentally did something that we could qualify of wrong to another man but his intentions were good. Son if such a brilliant neurosurgeon like him can misjudge the morality of his actions like this, how can you be sure that the actions that you are making in your daily life are the good ones? How can you be sure that your ideology is the right one? Just take a look at what you are doing or the way you are thinking and ask yourself if it's right.

Anyway, that was the story of patient H.M. but also the last scary story that I had to tell!

[Iforgotmybrain 5,865]

Like the other stories I found this really interesting. I feel like given the era and knowledge that Scoville had it was probably morally acceptable… He didn’t know what the ultimate end result would be, and like is said in the story he did it in hopes of helping someone. I’d be interested to know what H.M thought of everything, or how much of it he comprehended. Also, this overall story would be a good example for debating utilitarianism vs kantianism imo.

As for the personal/last question, I just try to do what I personally think is right. Following along the lines of: people deserve empathy and sympathy. Even if you don’t know them. The world is cruel, people can be cruel. No reason to add on to that cruelty.

[StarHeart333 1,766]

I had a grandmother with Alzheimer's that got progressively worse over time. So I've seen memory get even worse than in this story.

You think no new memories are bad try having no sense of self awareness, barely able to even chat often talking complete gibberish.

It's a good story don't get me wrong I don't mean to insult I've just had real life experience that was far worse. I know it sounds cruel to say but I am actually very glad she did die because she just wasn't really "there" and after a certain point being alive just does not equal living.

I miss her and can't wait to see her but as she really was.

If you have not had an older.llved one with it you thank your lucky stars is all I'm saying.

 

 

 

 

[Valynne 2,727]

Whoa... I liked this one!

[Clawdeen 15,576]

Interesting story as always.

To answer the question at the bottom. I do what I think is good by my own standards. What I consider good and you consider good may or may not be the same. I can’t really sit here and say I do the right thing because you and I may have a different take on right or wrong. 

[Felis Amafeles 1,166]

Thank you Shiny Silvermoon for this interesting story.

[Brony Number 42 10,073]

Today we would require more consent to perform dangerous procedures. I wouldn't say the doctor was evil. He just didn't know different.

[Ice Princess Silky <3 14,804]

Sounds good, guys! So! What do you all think about the three stories and their hidden clues? Perhaps you should message Nightmare Shiny about this and tell her what you suspect? 

[Shiny Silvermoon 4,003]

13 hours ago, Felis Amafeles said:

Thank you Shiny Silvermoon for this interesting story.

You're welcome! 

20 hours ago, Kramathia said:

Whoa... I liked this one!

I'm glad you did! 

[StarHeart333 1,766]

8 hours ago, Planeswalker Silky said:

Sounds good, guys! So! What do you all think about the three stories and their hidden clues? Perhaps you should message Nightmare Shiny about this and tell her what you suspect? 

Hidden clues? Strange creatures, beheadings by ghosts or otherworldly beings and memory loss. 

Two of three involve heads and two of three involve the supernatural.

I don't see a common thread for all three other than  all told by nightmare Shiny.

Edited October 31, 2023 by Earth Prince StarHeart

[Shiny Silvermoon 4,003]

4 hours ago, Props Valroa said:

@Shiny Silvermoon

Depends on the motive. Surgeries and such with the intention to cure illnesses is a great thing to do, however one must keep in mind that there is a cost for the success of modern medicine - that often involved all kinds of experiments, such as this. We should remember that there is a price to pay for progress. When one unlocks that progress, it is a dangerous and slippery slope that can remove what makes us human. It is something to be tempered carefully, weighed in each thought and decision. Chasing progress at all costs is a dangerous thing to do. Reality is more complex than "Good", and "Evil", but when it comes down to the line, there are many actions that people have done that I believe to be a universal evil. There are many sciences that have been developed that I believe are a universal evil, however, I won't go into that.

“The saddest aspect of society right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." - Isaac Asimov

“He was so caught up with the fact that he could, he never stopped to think whether he should” - Dr Ian Malcolm

I would like to introduce another Man who falls in the same line. A man whose actions have impacted all of Modern History.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Haber

The father of chemical warfare! That's an incredible story too! The guy saved so many people from hunger but in same time he killed so many soldiers! This guy was a living paradox!