Plague Doctor

Zhu, the patient table moved to the circular magnet, Gu Jun did not move, relaxed his mind, nothing wanted, let the device first photograph his control state.

While the FMRI machine was running, Professor Ma, Dr. Shen and others were looking at several images on the computer screen in front of the operating table in the front room.

At this point, the blood flow of Gu Jun's brain is displayed in the image, but only professionals can understand what the signals mean by the different colors and color brightness of different brain regions, as well as the information revealed by parameters such as MR, TE, T2, etc.

Don't say Wu Shiyu, Cai Zixuan can only look at Tu Xing sigh.

“Arjun is in a normal state.” Dr. Shen spoke to them.

After a while, after entering enough control state image data, Professor Ma spoke to Gu Jundo through the speaker in the examination room: “Ah-jun, next, do the stimulation task, from light to heavy ascent. First of all, I'm going to say the term for something unusual, and you listen very carefully. If you have a headache, don't tolerate it, let us know by screaming how serious your situation is, and if you can't tolerate it, make sure to stop me immediately. ”

“Okay.” Gu Jun answered in the examination room, "Professor Ma, you go ahead. ”

Professor Ma settled on his middle-aged face and slowly began to say a name: “Spells, Deep Divers, Isolated Banyan Disease, Human Isolated Banyan Tree...”

With Professor Ma's words, the color brightness of the brain image on the screen increased, and Gu Jun's brain neuronal activity became more active.

“Different scales, rituals, big bangs, Tian Yi Qing...” The more Professor Ma said, the brighter the image color, and the more nervous the mood.

“Ah!" Gu Jun suddenly made a painful noise. He felt that his head had changed from a hidden pain to a severe pain for a while, which had already made his body a little stiff.

This is his stress state, and this is the task state of the exam. By subtracting the flow chart of the task state from the flow chart of the control state, it is possible for the computer to discover brain parts associated with psychological manipulation specific to the task state, and now an instant comparison is displayed on a screen.

Dr. Shen was naturally able to read the image. When he next looked at it, he frowned. He spoke softly to Wu Shiyu: “The blood flow increased significantly in all three places: the frontal lobe, the almond nucleus, and the hippocampus. ”

Tsai Zixuantong couldn't help but sigh and grabbed his bald forehead. These three places are not good things...

He has read some research literature on PTSD, and one of the main findings of brain imaging in PTSD is the discovery of functional abnormalities in the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus, almond nucleus, prefrontal lobe, etc., so there is the pathological hypothesis of "prefrontal-almond nucleus - hippocampal loop”.

In other words, the impairment of the prefrontal lobe leads to a weakening of function, thereby weakening the regulation and control of the almond nucleus, which overstrengthens the response of the almond nucleus to terror, while the damage to the hippocampus itself and the dysregulation of the links with the prefrontal lobe and the almond nucleus also participate in the process of impairing the memory of the patient.

Now Yarkjun's blood flow measurement is consistent with this hypothesis of typical local brain activity.

Yarkjun's previous cerebral hemorrhage was in the right anterior frontal lobe, and if that injury and related surgery resulted in abnormal anterior frontal lobe function, the etiology was found.

“Ah-jun, now with more excitement, think back to what happened on that island.” Professor Ma added, "If you can't stand it, stop, don't force it. ”

Gu Jun complied with this stimulus task. His head hurts so much that he is almost unbearable. His breathing turns to asthma.

Then came the most important task, and the nurse next to the FMRI machine gave him a document with pictures of abnormal things like the bodies of deep divers, people with Xenobanyan disease, etc. After seeing only two or three pieces, Gu Jun had a severe headache and showed signs of involuntary muscle movement in his body before the seizure. He closed his eyes and stopped.

And the stimulus task for this exam is over, but Gu Jun will not leave the patient table for now, so that the machine can continue to record changes in his brain blood flow during the calming process.

On the other hand, Professor Ma, Dr. Shen, they looked at the contrasting images in the computer, and they were all getting uglier and a little surprised...

When Gu Jun recalled the traumatic scene, the blood flow continued to increase; and when he looked at the stress picture, he experienced a dramatic change in hemodynamics, not only in the three brain regions of the frontal lobe, the almond nucleus, and the hippocampus, but also in the whole brain, which was much more intense than in PTSD patients in general.

And this rapid congestion of the whole brain is very dangerous, can lead to a sudden increase in blood pressure and can easily cause hemorrhage due to microvascular rupture in the brain.

Given that Gu Jun also has a history of cerebral hemorrhage and craniotomy, this level of stress status is fatal enough for him.

“Not optimistic, really not optimistic...” Dr. Shen muttered, not a pessimist, but felt helpless.

As soon as Gu Jun came out of the examination room and saw their faces, he knew that the situation was not optimistic.

When he looked at the results of the images, his mind was a little confused. Did the forehead injury cause abnormal function, which is difficult to heal...

“Xian Jun.” Wu Shiyu patted him on the shoulder, "you were in a coma half a month ago, it will be fine. ”

“Mm-hmm.” Gu Jun nodded at her and said to Professor Ma, “Professor Ma, I want to do MRI and MRS too, find out more. ”

MRI, which is nuclear magnetic resonance, is brain morphometry for brain function tests, and MRS, which is live magnetic resonance spectrometry, measures the volume of hippocampus and evaluates whether hippocampal neurons are lost or damaged. Because changes in hippocampal structure are typical symptoms in patients with PTSD.

Both tests require the injection of radioactive substances, that is, contrast agents, which were not easy to use due to concerns about secondary use of his body.

It is now both Gu Jun's request and BOLD-FMRI's inability to show the structure of his hippocampus. After some discussion, Professor Ma and Dr. Shen agreed to conduct an examination, but let Gu Jun rest in the lab for three hours first. The nurse then gave him contrast media, and then he completed the MRI and MRS tests.

MRI is an anatomical image, whereas MRS is a synthesis that records all chemical signals in the individual being tested and the measurements are plotted by multiple spectra.

And Gu Jun's MRI image showed indirect signs of hippocampal volume reduction - his lateral ventricular temporal angle widened and the hippocampal superficial sulcus disappeared.

The MRS results also showed a signal of a decrease in the number of hippocampal neurons.

On this day, Gu Jun also performed a number of other tests, such as blood sampling for BDNF levels (brain derived neurotrophic factors), which were generally lower in PTSD patients than in the normal population. And now his BDNF levels are low, which is a significant drop from the results of his last physical examination.

NASA has research data suggesting that the BDNF levels in the Ganoderma intellect population will be higher than in the normal population, which may also be its source of intellect.

Now it seems that Gu Jun not only lost his spiritual knowledge, but also had neuroendocrine features of PTSD pathology.

All these tests were put together, and Professor Ma knew what the answer was… Gu Jun's brain shape did change.

“Ah-jun, go back and get some rest, relax, don't think about it so much, we will discuss a treatment that best suits you.” Dr Shen, dressed as an easy consolation, said that Gu Jun had been sent out of the lab.

Then, Dr. Shen and Professor Ma came to the adjacent conference room for a teleconference, and Grandpa Tong, Shinian Yao, and the director were all waiting for the inspection report.