BDP 27
A/N: Ok, this is gonna be a technical chapter. I have been doing a lot of
reading, trying to figure out just what exactly they did to the Dragons. I
may not be right on, but I'm no doctor either. If anyone spots any errors,
please enlighten me. Please note, this is only an early stage of the
training. Wait until they start tampering with the paleopallium. I think
I've been reading to many of these medical texts, that thought excites me.
*sigh*
I could only stare at the pages of collected data. What I was seeing was so far from what we had anticipated that I couldn't think of anything intelligent to say at first. We had estimated it would take three times longer for the human brain to respond than it had for the chimps. After all, the simians had not had twenty years of social conditioning to override. They relied far more on the archipallium and the sympathetic nervous system for daily survival, so really there wasn't much neocortex activity to subvert. The human brain should have been more difficult to alter, right?
We were wrong. Very, very wrong. The paraventricular nuclei were already twice the standard size, as were the adrenal medulla. This would explain the increased aggression. The adrenal medulla was releasing adrenalin and noradrenalin in correspondingly higher amounts. The pons, cerebellum, mesencephalon, and the globus pallidus were also enlarged. That did not bode well, as they controlled balance, muscles, and autonomic functions such as breathing and heartbeat.
Of course Ellis had been excited about the development, postulating that in later stages the subjects would possess superior balance and muscle control. They would be able to deliberately alter their state of consciousness, metabolic rate, and hormone secretion. He completely ignored the potential for megalomania, obsessive/compulsive disorders, and paranoid delusions. I didn't think he cared about the Black Dragons mental health in the least, self-absorbed little bastard that he is.
The higher ratio of activity on the sympathetic nervous system, at least, had not been a surprise. We had expected that, given the cerebral cortex stimulation. It was what we had intended. It had shown up on the day- to-day observations we had been running.
With the perfect vision of hindsight, these developments could have been caught much earlier if we had been running full diagnostics or CAT scans. Instead we had been using a very specialized piece of equipment that monitored the surges along the neural net called an N.N.I. (neural net imager). It had been devised to monitor the chimps, and later recalibrated for humans. It did its job brilliantly, especially considering that brain functions are never exclusively cortical or limbic, so it must be able to track through the entire brain and log initiation and termination points. The N.N.I. just wasn't designed to do anything else or give any other data.
Well, it was too late for that kind of thinking anyway. The only thing we could do now was adjust the drug therapy, and alter the training videos. It was possible that without the additional drugs, the enlarged areas of the archipallium would recede. They might even return to normal proportions, but it was unlikely.
"One thing I've been considering in light of these developments is giving each subject personalized training videos, instead of the group ones. I have enough individual data now to do so." Quinn, who headed the behavioral side of the research, cut into the little bubble of shock I was still sitting in.
"Personalized how?" I could hear the censure in my voice, but right now I was too upset to care. There were far to many of my peers considering this as an opportunity instead of a dangerous error to be corrected.
"I was thinking about including mythical imagery. It would give them something larger than themselves to identify with." Quinn smiled triumphantly toward the room at large, and I knew this wasn't a new idea.
He must have been working on this for a while. It could have even been part of his original proposition and they had not allowed him to do it, for one reason or another. Either way, Quinn had seen an opening to push his pet theory into operation, and he was taking it. Actually, it didn't sound like a bad idea. Myths held a lot of power over the subconscious mind. Perhaps it would help the Dragons wend their way through the maze of tampered reality we were sending them into.
I could only stare at the pages of collected data. What I was seeing was so far from what we had anticipated that I couldn't think of anything intelligent to say at first. We had estimated it would take three times longer for the human brain to respond than it had for the chimps. After all, the simians had not had twenty years of social conditioning to override. They relied far more on the archipallium and the sympathetic nervous system for daily survival, so really there wasn't much neocortex activity to subvert. The human brain should have been more difficult to alter, right?
We were wrong. Very, very wrong. The paraventricular nuclei were already twice the standard size, as were the adrenal medulla. This would explain the increased aggression. The adrenal medulla was releasing adrenalin and noradrenalin in correspondingly higher amounts. The pons, cerebellum, mesencephalon, and the globus pallidus were also enlarged. That did not bode well, as they controlled balance, muscles, and autonomic functions such as breathing and heartbeat.
Of course Ellis had been excited about the development, postulating that in later stages the subjects would possess superior balance and muscle control. They would be able to deliberately alter their state of consciousness, metabolic rate, and hormone secretion. He completely ignored the potential for megalomania, obsessive/compulsive disorders, and paranoid delusions. I didn't think he cared about the Black Dragons mental health in the least, self-absorbed little bastard that he is.
The higher ratio of activity on the sympathetic nervous system, at least, had not been a surprise. We had expected that, given the cerebral cortex stimulation. It was what we had intended. It had shown up on the day- to-day observations we had been running.
With the perfect vision of hindsight, these developments could have been caught much earlier if we had been running full diagnostics or CAT scans. Instead we had been using a very specialized piece of equipment that monitored the surges along the neural net called an N.N.I. (neural net imager). It had been devised to monitor the chimps, and later recalibrated for humans. It did its job brilliantly, especially considering that brain functions are never exclusively cortical or limbic, so it must be able to track through the entire brain and log initiation and termination points. The N.N.I. just wasn't designed to do anything else or give any other data.
Well, it was too late for that kind of thinking anyway. The only thing we could do now was adjust the drug therapy, and alter the training videos. It was possible that without the additional drugs, the enlarged areas of the archipallium would recede. They might even return to normal proportions, but it was unlikely.
"One thing I've been considering in light of these developments is giving each subject personalized training videos, instead of the group ones. I have enough individual data now to do so." Quinn, who headed the behavioral side of the research, cut into the little bubble of shock I was still sitting in.
"Personalized how?" I could hear the censure in my voice, but right now I was too upset to care. There were far to many of my peers considering this as an opportunity instead of a dangerous error to be corrected.
"I was thinking about including mythical imagery. It would give them something larger than themselves to identify with." Quinn smiled triumphantly toward the room at large, and I knew this wasn't a new idea.
He must have been working on this for a while. It could have even been part of his original proposition and they had not allowed him to do it, for one reason or another. Either way, Quinn had seen an opening to push his pet theory into operation, and he was taking it. Actually, it didn't sound like a bad idea. Myths held a lot of power over the subconscious mind. Perhaps it would help the Dragons wend their way through the maze of tampered reality we were sending them into.