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A Novel
by Diana Abu-JaberThis article relates to Origin
Children raised by animals?
In
Origins, Lena believes she
spent her early years in the
jungle being raised by apes,
which begs the question, are
there any real cases of children
being raised by animals? You
will find the answer at
feralchildren.com which has
collated a number of claims and
attempts to separate fact from
fiction.
Mirror-touch synesthesia
Lana is able to sense things
that others can't, such as the
emotional residue left in a room
after a crime has been
committed. Is this far fetched?
Perhaps not - as scientists
learn more about the human brain
they are finding things that
used to be the stuff of fantasy
are within the brain's ability
(or at least the ability of some
people's brains!). For example,
it seems that some people can
literally feel the pain of
others.
The condition known as
mirror-touch synesthesia was
known only anecdotally until
recently when neuroscientist
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore completed
a study of 10 mirror-touch
synesthetes (reported in
Nature), all of who
were found to have overactive
mirror neurons, which are the
brain cells that allow us to see
an action and comprehend it
enough to be able to mimic it.
Blakemore had only heard of the
phenomena anecdotally until she
referenced it at a seminar in
2003. A woman in the audience
asked "doesn't everyone
experience that? Isn't that
completely normal?" This woman
became one of Blakemore's study
subjects. Alice, another
participant in the study, says,
"I have never been able to
understand how people can enjoy
looking at bloodthirsty films
... I can feel it."
This "beyond the book article" relates to Origin. It originally ran in July 2007 and has been updated for the May 2008 paperback edition. Go to magazine.
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