Warning. Don’t be fooled. Is this a scam?

Brains are plastic. That is brains are molded in structure and function based on our life experiences. How could learning occur if this was not the case? Experiences like learning to speak, socialize and avoid being eaten by a predator are all dependent on real, measureable changes in our brains. Learning is not just an abstraction but real and palpable. A simple example…how does expertise develop? Practice, lots of it, leaves the brain changed. Accomplished concert violinists, master chess players, perfume developers have skill-related areas of brain developed beyond what is evident in the rest of us.

Some brain plasticity occurs in response to injury. When an area of the brain is damaged or not used, such as forms of blindness, then other brain areas ordinarily devoted to other functions become better developed resulting in superior functioning such as hearing in the blind.

The movie script that has been submitted to us takes the concept of brain plasticity, specialization and enhancement of specific brain functioning as a consequence of brain damage to magical, amusing, absurd new heights. The film script may turn out to be instructive in its exaggeration of what is possible.

To: New Bretten mind/brain science consortium

From: DWW; CCNY; Neuroscience Dept.

If I ever retire as a researcher I want to be a film scriptwriter so I am preparing for my next life. I have a film script idea that you might find interesting. If you agree we can talk about a collaboration, which would include a ‘real’ scriptwriter, filmmaker, some actors, a clinical neuropsychologist and someone from your consortium. Below I have an outline of my script, which deals with a clinical case that illustrates and perhaps exaggerates brain plasticity. The extent to which the brain is malleable is presented by examining the collateral consequences of brain damage to sensory systems like vision or audition? The film is about someone who develops a heightened sense of smell following damage to visual and auditory cortex.

I can picture someone like Oliver Sacks introducing the film and perhaps make comments in the background as the film unfolds. Obviously this is a wish and fantasy but I find it appealing. Below is a very brief outline of a script. (Excluding details such as I can send you additional details such as character development, and plot specifics, set, and dialogue.

What do you think?

To: DWW

From: LAK and the New Bretten mind/brain science consortium

Thanks for your screen outline and memo. I have circulated your idea for a film with our consortium and will get back to you shortly. You do of course realize that use of psychiatric and neurological clinical case materials often appears in films. I gather you see your project as one that concentrates on teaching the viewer about mind-brain relationships rather than simple entertainment. Your script comes across as a comic strip with exaggerations (clichés) of what is a baseball fan to the nature of large Italian families.  What is absent is empathy for the hero’s (patient’s) serious neurological symptoms.  Is it too silly and flashy?

The Scam

1. Background: Bobby and Vinnie Antonucci 2 of 5 brothers who live in work in a suburb of Boston. Bobby and Vinnie were born two years are 29 and 31 single, mechanics at the same Sears auto repair shop. Along with the rest of their family they are life-long passionate sports fans, which means Bosox, Patriots, Celtics, and the Bruins. Beanie and Vinnie, have since adolescence been called stubs and stork and the names stuck. Unlike their brothers Stubs and Stork are still single and committed drinkers and hotheads.
2. At a Red sox game in august of 2007 life changes for Stubs and consequently for the rest of the Antonucci clan. The sox were behind 5 to 2 in the eight inning when a Yankee fan sitting a few seats away from Vinnie started laughing at them and the Sox and things led to some shouting, name calling, threats, and finally a scuffle and pushing with Stubs half drunk at the time falling back and hitting his head on the edge of the cement steps of the peanut gallery out in the center left field stands. Stubs ended up in the emergency room. It was determined (neurological exams and lots of head films) that he had suffered head trauma but it was not clear how acute it was nor what damage had occurred. He was admitted for further work up.
3. Stubs brain injury was significant. Both the visual and auditory area of his brain had suffered damage and consequently his ability to process information was compromised. He was given medical leave from Sears. He grew more and more despondent despite the support of all of his family and friends. He also stopped drinking heavily and following sports.
4. Stub’s life has changed in many ways. He started to be very fussy about the foods he ate and stopped eating French fries and fried chicken and instead chose to eat lots of fresh vegetables and imported cheeses. His started to notice all kinds of smells. He knew when his niece was in his parent’s house even though she may have been inside and he was in the backyard. His smell had become extraordinarily sensitive. That is when his brother Vinnie suggested he apply for work at perfume manufacturer.
5. Stub’s olfactory skills continued to develop. He became sort after by all the large perfume manufacturers. He also worked well with chemists who were essential in taking his ideas and turning them into viable products. He could not only identify tiny differences in perfumes but was particularly successful in imagining what might make a perfume particularly appealing to women (and men) but with the added skill of being able to tailor perfumes to specific types of individuals.
6. In time he saw his nose as being of value in other arenas. For example, a physician’s group practice in Lax Vegas recruited him to help diagnose illnesses in patients by sniffing at their blood samples and other bodily fluids. He did not have the good judgment to realize that he was a tool in a scam which brought him close to be convicted and sent to jail along with his physician employees.
7. Stubs was offered an opportunity to avoid jail by agreeing to serve the Office of homeland Security as a specialist in identifying bombs, biologics. He helped to create programs for training dogs to be even better and sniffing out concealed dangerous products.
8. For some unknown reason he started to lose his sniffing skills. Slow fade out along with Vinnie disappearing.