The God-Hand who conquers the 3D labyrinth of the brain, but can't find the 'mayonnaise' in the fridge (Day 17)
Endovascular neurosurgery. It is the ultimate navigation technique, where an ultra-fine catheter inserted from the patient's groin is guided past the heart, through the neck, and into the deepest reaches of the brain.
This is my main battlefield. In particular, during 'flow diverter (FD) placement' to treat cerebral aneurysms, I navigate a complex, winding 3D vascular network with millimeter precision, relying solely on 2D X-ray fluoroscopy. The branches, curves, and diameters of the vessels in the brain—everything is constructed as a perfect 3D hologram in my mind.
I never get lost. A 'demon of spatial awareness' who reaches the target aneurysm by the shortest and fastest route. That is who I am in the operating room.
Yet, I, this 'micro-genius navigator,' was completely lost in my own kitchen during dinner last night.
'Sorry, could you grab the mayonnaise from the second shelf of the fridge!' came the command from my wife, who was cooking in the kitchen.
A simple mission. After all, I am a demon of spatial awareness. I stood up confidently and swung open the giant white gate (the fridge door). What appeared along with the cold air was a macro-jungle teeming with dressings, ketchup, jam, and ponzu sauce.
I moved my eyeballs quickly, scanning the second shelf. ...It's not there. Once more, from right to left. Ketchup, yakiniku sauce, yuzu kosho. ...It's not there.
'Hey, it's not here! Are we out of mayonnaise!?' I shouted toward the kitchen, and my wife approached with a sigh.
'Again? Look properly, I told you the right side of the second shelf.' My wife reached her arm out past me. Then, from 'that very spot' where I had scanned with my eyes at least five times, she magically retrieved the Kewpie mayonnaise with the bright red cap in 0.5 seconds.
'Huh...? You've got to be kidding, it definitely wasn't there a second ago!?' 'No, it was right here the whole time. Are your eyes just holes?'
My wife's cold gaze pierced through me. Unbelievable. A few hours ago, I was a man who navigated the minute branches of brain vessels less than 1 millimeter in diameter without missing a single blink. Why can I not recognize a giant 500-gram bottle of mayonnaise right in front of me? What is happening inside my brain?
【🏥 Medical Analysis: Inattentional Blindness in Macro-Space】
Please let me defend myself with all my brain science might as to why I lost sight of the mayonnaise.
What I demonstrate in the operating room is a highly 'focused spatial awareness' that extracts specific vascular shapes from the 'limited black-and-white information' of X-rays.
On the other hand, the inside of a refrigerator is a chaotic space overflowing with intense colors like red, yellow, and green, as well as various text information (noise). My cerebral cortex visual area goes into hyper-focus, trying to find the perfect template of the 'Kewpie red mesh pattern.' As a result, it treats the 'noise-filled mayonnaise'—which happened to be turned around or half-hidden by other bottles—as background and rejects it,even though it is perfectly within my field of vision.
In psychology and cognitive science, this is called 'inattentional blindness.' It is by no means that I am incompetent; it is simply that my visual cortex exerted too much noise-canceling functionality, temporarily erasing the very existence of the mayonnaise from the world. Please believe me.
I can always avoid a dead end in a brain vessel, but I don't seem to be able to escape the dead end of my wife's comment, 'Are your eyes just holes?'
From now on, before opening the fridge, I think I will mutter 'mayonnaise, mayonnaise...' as a spell to provide a strong input to my cerebral cortex before I begin my search.