Throughout this series we have examined a wide range of aspects, from the conceptual design to the transmission power of an individual neuron. Today, I thought we would look at a completely different aspect. How can we tell that a person is not merely Schizophrenic? Not only is this somewhat fascinating in itself, but it has the ability to provide some definitive evidence. That is very important for both medical teams and those involved in National Security.
The Standardized Criteria
Firstly, I must point out some limitations of this article. The first limitation is that this only applies to those that have the ability to converse with inner voice(s). So, if someone is claiming the merely hear a voice, or snippets of conversations, then this method of analysis will be of limited value. Such examples would be categorized in this article. For those of a medical background, the following symptom of Schizophrenia is being referred to:
Early in our training many of us made the mistake of asking patients in the hospital psychiatric emergency room if they were hearing voices of people who are not there. Some of us thought the patients were lying when they told us that they were not hearing voices, whether of someone there or not there. You see, for these patients, they were not hearing voices but were carrying on conversations with someone else. Again, these patients were not imagining a conversation but were really, really having a conversation. Therefore, they were not "hearing voices" but were being spoken to. The same applies to each of the other types of hallucinations affecting each of the other sense organs.
Allan Schwartz, Ph.D.
Dr. Schwartz's Weblog
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=28686
Now that we have that established, let us examine some of the diagnostic criteria that defines Schizophrenia. What I am looking at is whether or not the basic diagnostic criteria can be faked by Synthetic Telepathy and if there is any medical way it can be differentiated from Schizophrenia.
If you want to follow along with this, I will be heavily referring to a video by William McFarlane M.D of the Maine Medical Center entitled "Schizophrenia Explained" and the Standardized Criteria as listed at Wikipedia. If we take our lead from Wikipedia, we will begin with delusions.
A person with Schizophrenia will hold delusions, quite often, severe paranoid delusions such as being followed, spied upon, being poisoned, thought being manipulated or broadcast, etc. Synthetic Telepathy does have the ability to induce such notions in a variety of ways. Normally, it would be a combination of stress positions (muscular contraction), sleep deprivation and the A.I. drawing attention to patterns, making plays on words or suggesting conspiratorial notions about events. The patient does not neccessarily need to be aware of this, even though they may be aware of a voice with whom they communicate. Thus, this aspect of the Standardized Criteria will not allow medical staff to determine whether or not this is artificially induced.
The next criteria is hallucinations. Of course, the conversational voice we described earlier is a requirement, but as it is this we are questioning, we will leave it to one side for the moment. If we stick to visual hallucinations, like those presented in the first two pictures, again we will have a similar problem as we had with delusions. The visual cortex can be stimulated by radio waves, so colors can change and certain persistence of vision effects can also occur, that can lead the mind into filling-in-the-gaps mimicking the visual effects in the first two pictures.
Disorganized speech really follows any type of mental illness that is related to arousal. Given that neurotransmitters are effected by Synthetic Telepathy's activity such as sleep deprivation and stimulated stress, arousal is generally automatic and thus the full chain of mental effects manifest. Whilst it is possible to perform limited real-time stimulation by radio wave, mimicking certain aspects, for a full natural effect the A.I. merely feeds into a psychosis providing some of the hallmarks of Schizophrenia.
If we now look at the third and forth diagrams to the right, we can see a range of other symptoms that may be present. Once again, the common issue is that these aspects can be either induced or faked by Synthetic Telepathy. Thus, we need to realise that a diagnosis based upon the Standarized Criteria is not enough to rule out Synthetic Telepathy.
Quite the contrary, it is the first stage in proving it is the source.
MRI To The Rescue
There is only way to differentiate between a Schizophrenic and someone effected by Synthetic Telepathy. An MRI scan should provide conclusive proof that a person suffers from Schizophrenia.
If we examine the fifth diagram, we can observe that there is difference between the activity, in the pre-frontal lobe, of a healthy brain and that of a Schizophrenic. The Schizophrenic brain has lower activity in this region. If we now look at the second diagram, we can observe how this lower activity extends to the whole brain and excess activity occurs in areas such as the occipital lobe (visual center).
Thus, if an MRI was conducted on a patient that demonstrated the Standardized Criteria of Schizophrenia and it failed to show signs of Schizophrenia, then the case for Synthetic Telepathy becomes very strong. That said, from the perspective of practical medicine, patients should be medicated to treat the symptoms, as regardless of how such illness is induced, it is still very much present.
In the world of National Security, any staff member who has passed an MRI that subsequently hears voices and passes a second MRI should be considered a breach of security. They should be removed to a secure room immediately and monitored for changes. I am sure such activity is passive for the most part, but there are uses for an inside man, especially an unstable one.
