Awakening

The movie started with scenes of a child, Leonard, being infected by a disease known as Encephalitis Lethargica which affects the neurons in the basal ganglion and midbrain, where the substantial nigra lies. (Dale RC, Church AJ, Surtees RA, Lees AJ, Adcock JE, Harding B, Neville BG & Giovannoni G, 2004)This explains why some patients suffering from it eventually become catatonic as the basal ganglion is responsible for the coordination of movement, while the substantial nigra is responsible for movement, rewards and addiction. Having known that Parkinson's patients experience the inability to produce Dopaminic Neurons in the substantial nigra, similar to patients who were infected by Encephalitis Lethargica, Dr Sayer suggested an attempt to put catatonic patients who had a history of Encephalitis Lethargica disease, on the same medication as Parkinson's patient.( National Parkinson Foundation, n.d.) As a result, L-Dopa was suggested and used. At the beginning, L-Dopa seemed to work fairly well on the patients, however, their body eventually learn to tolerate the effects of L-Dopa and higher dosage is needed in order to maintain the 'awakening' effect. Unfortunately, there were side effects. It became noticeable in Leonard when he began showing signs of hallucinations and strong emotions after some time of consumption. The drugs were then slowly taken away from the patients by gradually reducing the dosages. The effects of reducing L-Dopa from Leonard's system can be seen from the deterioration of his movements which eventually brought him back to a catatonic state.

The moments where the patients were able to move their arms to catch an object moving pass them and started feeding themselves when a particular music was played caught my attention. I have yet to come out with any reasonable explanation that match their abilities of catching moving objects. However, I suspect that the reason why they were able to move when the right music was played could have been due to a short activation of a pleasurable long term memory associated with the music played, and resulted in the release of dopamine in the substantial nigra temporarily. The scenes showing a patient walking towards the window both before and after consumption of the medication prescribed by Dr Sayer suggested that these patients may not have completely lost their consciousness while they were in a catatonic state. This is further evidenced when a spike was observed on Leonard's brain wave readings upon hearing his name being called.

In the movie, Leonard's mother complained to Dr Sayer how much her son has changed and how he wouldn't survive without her assistance when Leonard started directing his focus from his mother to a lady he was in love in. This is an evident of Empty Nest syndrome which can be defined as a phenomena that occur when parent feel sad and empty when their child leave them. I was literally moved by the unconditional love given by Leonard's mother to her so  over decades without asking anything in return. What I learn most from the movie is that we metaphor-logically have 2 lives. One is our consciousness, the other is our spirit for life. Many of us may still be conscious over our surrounding, but have lost the spirit of living by submerging into daily routine with no passion or hope. This movie is meant to show us the awakening of the consciousness of Leonard and the other catatonic patients, and their awakenings is meant to awaken the spirit of living within us.

Cites:

 Dale RC, Church AJ, Surtees RA, Lees AJ, Adcock JE, Harding B, Neville BG & Giovannoni G. (2004). Encephalitis lethargica syndrome: 20 new cases and evidence of basal ganglia autoimmunity. - PubMed - NCBI. Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 26 January 2016, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14570817

 National Parkinson Foundation. National Parkinson Foundation: Believe in Better. Retrieved 26 January 2016, from http://www.parkinson.org/understanding-parkinsons/what-is-parkinsons
I