“Ventromedial prefrontal cortex……?”
For Choi Moo-gyeol’s parents, whose profession was not in the medical field, it was a terribly unfamiliar term.
“S-so you’re saying you resected part of his brain?”
“Yes. You can think of it as part of the frontal lobe.”
“Then won’t there be problems?”
“We’ll only know for sure after he wakes up and we run tests, but his intelligence, motor skills, memory, and language ability will likely not differ greatly from before. However…… there is a possibility that his personality may change somewhat.”
“His personality changes? You mean his character changes?”
Choi Moo-gyeol’s parents still could not easily understand the doctor’s explanation.
“How should I explain the ventromedial prefrontal cortex area.”
“Please tell us as simply as possible.”
“For instance, it is what makes a human, an animal, into an animal capable of higher thought. Things like moral judgment that only humans have. It is the area responsible for high-level mental functions.”
The doctor continued as if a good example had come to mind.
“In the 19th century in America, there was a man named Phineas Gage.”
“Phineas Gage?”
“He was a person who suffered an injury in which an iron rod pierced exactly the same area as Moo-gyeol.”
“Ah…….”
“The doctors of that time saved his life by completely resecting the frontal lobe. They had no choice, it was the 19th century.”
“How did his personality change after the surgery?”
“His intelligence and memory were intact, and there was no hindrance at all to living, but his personality became violent and he lost any guilt about acts of violence.”
Choi Moo-gyeol’s mother asked back with an expression of disbelief.
“Surely you’re not saying our Moo-gyeol will become a case like that too? He was a child who couldn’t even kill a single bug…….”
Choi Moo-gyeol’s father asked as if he were about to lung at the doctor at any moment.
“Are you saying that Moo-gyeol will not be able to live as a proper human being from now on? That he’ll become violent and turn into a criminal?”
“Please calm down, Father. Phineas Gage was just an example I gave. Moo-gyeol will not be to that degree. We’ll need to watch further to be certain, though.”
“How can you guarantee it won’t be to that degree?”
“Phineas Gage was a case where the frontal lobe was completely removed, and Moo-gyeol is a case where only part of the damaged area was resected. So there will definitely be a difference.”
“Is that so…….”
“However, it is still difficult to state it definitively. Since the brain is an organ still under research, we do not know exactly what results will appear. As I said, you will need to watch for some time to see what effect today’s surgery has had on Moo-gyeol’s emotional aspect.”
“How long must we watch to know for sure?”
“You will need to observe for at least several months.”
“If his personality does change, how should we treat our child?”
“…….”
The doctor could not easily answer Choi Moo-gyeol’s parents’ question.
* * *
When Choi Moo-gyeol finally opened his eyes in the hospital room.
His parents cried and embraced him.
Then Choi Moo-gyeol said.
“Mom, Dad, why are you crying?”
“……We’re crying because we’re grateful.”
“Grateful for what?”
“Because you stayed by our side without leaving us.”
“But why are you crying?”
“…….”
The first conversation on the first day of recovery.
It was a somewhat worrying reaction from the child, especially since they had already heard from the doctor about the aftereffects of frontal lobe damage.
It was a somewhat unnatural conversation from the very first words, but Choi Moo-gyeol’s parents decided to interpret it as positively as possible.
‘Of course a child wouldn’t understand the feelings of parents who almost lost their child. He’s young, so he’d understand even less.’
However, as the recovery period grew longer, and the more they conversed with Choi Moo-gyeol.
His parents could feel it clearly.
The fact that ‘the child’s emotions are definitely different from before.’
They had no choice but to acknowledge it.
Choi Moo-gyeol, who had returned alive from the threshold of death.
The fact that something had clearly gone wrong in his brain.
In the consultation before discharge, the attending physician delivered the verdict the parents least wanted.
“The diagnosis is as predicted. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage seems to have touched Moo-gyeol’s emotional area. He can hardly feel the emotions that ordinary people feel.”
The parents asked in trembling voices.
“Are you saying our child has become a psychopath-like human who cannot feel emotions?”
“Rather than that, it would be more accurate to see it as him having entered an acquired state of empathy inability.”
“An acquired state of empathy inability…….”
“From now on, Moo-gyeol will not understand others’ tears, and he will not feel sorry even in situations where he should apologize. He clearly recognizes the situation, but he cannot connect it to his own emotions.”
“How can such a thing…….”
“It is as if Moo-gyeol paid the human aspect called emotion as the price for surviving the great accident. Because of this, interactions with others may become somewhat difficult from now on.”
“Then what should we do? Is there no method?”
“Please teach him well, parents. How to live among people.”
The doctor lightly placed a hand on Choi Moo-gyeol’s father’s shoulder as if to encourage him and said.
“If he cannot feel emotions, teach him to memorize them. Teach him how to read others’ emotions. Also how to pretend his own emotions.”
But to the parents, it felt far too difficult.
“Are you telling us to teach our child to imitate and act as if he feels emotions?”
“I know it is hard to accept the current situation. But only by acting that way can Moo-gyeol survive without being treated as a monster in the world.”
“Treated as a monster…….”
“I am telling you the reality.”
The two people’s faces were filled with worry and concern. How could any parent smile when their child has become an acquired psychopath?
“Didn’t he save his life in a fatal accident. That alone is a miracle.”
The doctor comforted them.
But no one knew that there was yet another mysterious miracle in that.
* * *
Several months passed after the ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage accident.
Choi Moo-gyeol, having recovered his health, returned to school life.
But then something strange happened.
It was when he was listening to a class.
‘I missed a lot of the progress because of the surgery and hospitalization, what do I do?’
He asked the friend next to him.
“What page are we on?”
“Page sixty-two.”
“A lot of progress was made in that time.”
The period he could not attend school because of the accident was not short.
For Choi Moo-gyeol, who was not normally such an excellent student, that gap was a great burden.
Since he had to skip part of the textbook, it was hard to understand the class content the teacher was explaining.
‘I need to focus…… Hm?!’
It was that moment he thought that.
Suddenly, his vision narrowed.
As if the outer edges of his eyes were shrinking.
Instead, the inside of the edges became much clearer.
‘What is this all of a sudden? Did something go wrong with my brain?’
It was strange.
Not in a bad way, but in a good way.
It was not just that his vision narrowed and became clearer.
The teacher’s words were perceived more distinctly.
‘Why is the class content suddenly not difficult at all?’
It should definitely be hard to understand because of the gap from being away from school, but the moment he thought ‘I need to focus,’ he began to comprehend the content.
Was it because emotions were blocked?
Was it that concentration increased instead of vision narrowing?
Choi Moo-gyeol felt as if the teacher’s class content was being engraved into his head right now.
It felt like he had taken a medicine that strengthened concentration.
What increased was not only Choi Moo-gyeol’s comprehension.
Since he perceived things distinctly, they remained better in his memory.
‘Even my memory is much more vivid.’
As if information were being engraved into the brain responsible for memory.
Content heard once was remembered clearly even ten or twenty minutes later.
Choi Moo-gyeol, who analyzed himself after becoming a doctor, came to call this state ‘cognitive focusing (認知集束).’ It is a term used in psychology or cognitive science, meaning the extreme concentration of perception, memory, and thinking ability (=cognition) on a specific target.
The next class was math, which he quite disliked.
He tried using cognitive focusing.
He felt his vision become limited and its resolution rise.
“Moo-gyeol. Would you like to try solving the next problem?”
“Isn’t it twenty-four?”
“Oh, correct. Fast.”
Never before had a problem the teacher spontaneously assigned been solved this quickly.
‘Calculation became faster too……! This affects mathematical ability as well.’
Not only comprehension and memorization but also mathematical ability had risen compared to before.
That was not all that had changed.
In PE class, he could feel yet another sense.
“Now, today’s class is dodgeball.”
They formed teams and began dodgeball.
Thwack—.
No matter how hard the kids threw, he could comfortably catch the ball coming toward him.
As if it had a magnet attached.
The kids watching were also surprised.
“What is that Moo-gyeol? Why is he suddenly so good at dodgeball?”
Lee Dong-gyu, who was on the opposing team, also said to Choi Moo-gyeol.
“You were originally butterfingers, weren’t you?”
“I wasn’t exactly butterfingers.”
“You definitely weren’t good at sports, right?”
“…….”
‘I’m definitely going to hit you.’
When Choi Moo-gyeol concentrated his consciousness while thinking that.
For a moment, he felt the world slow down.
Like bullet time in The Matrix or an arcade game.
Within it, only Choi Moo-gyeol himself seemed to move at his own speed.
Choi Moo-gyeol threw the ball with all his might.
Thwack—.
“Ah!”
The ball hit Lee Dong-gyu’s head and bounced out. Only then did bullet time end and the world return to its original speed.
It was a kind of ‘neural acceleration’ effect. Time does not actually slow down, but as senses, motor nerves, and reaction speed become extremely fast, the external world is experienced as slow.
All the kids watching were surprised.
“Wow, what was that just now, that bullet-like shot?”
Lee Dong-gyu, who could not dodge the ball that flew like an arrow and got hit in the head, was making a bewildered expression.
“Hul. I got out by Moo-gyeol? No way!”
“That’s the price for calling me butterfingers.”
“But I’m the Messi of dodgeball…….”
“If you’re Messi, then I’m Ronaldo.”
As the childish bickering grew long, our team’s kids shouted.
“If Lee Dong-gyu is out, hurry up and leave!”
* * *
Through a series of events, Choi Moo-gyeol realized.
After the brain surgery.
It was not just his intelligence that had improved.
Even his motor nerves had become markedly better than before.
The ‘miracle’ of the accident, the second one.
Or it could be called a ‘positive side effect.’
That was the fact that Choi Moo-gyeol’s brain performance had changed by a dimension.
When he consciously thought ‘I need to focus,’ when he turned on what in Choi Moo-gyeol’s terms was ‘cognitive focusing.’
All areas such as comprehension, memorization, mathematical ability, and motor skills became much better than before.
The same was true for eyesight. Although his field of vision narrowed slightly, it became possible to see much more clearly.
However, this ability had one disadvantage.
