Neurocognitive Deficit is the ability to shut down a person's upper brain functions and enabling the user to render others unconscious.
Characters[]
- Anna Korolenko is the only character known to have this ability. (Friend or Foe)
Limits[]
Anna's ability has only been shown to shut down the upper brain functions of those around her. Anna used her ability on her family and destroyed them mentally. According to Dr. Suresh, her ability has been known to affect and disorient sensory perception, motor commands, language skills, and even conscious thought (chapter 2 of Operation Bad Blood).
According to Anna, she had headaches and enhanced senses when she first used her ability and then lost consciousness. However, since then, she has been able to stay awake while using her ability (chapter 4 of Operation Bad Blood). She did not say as to whether she still had enhanced senses while using the ability.
Examples[]
- Anna begins to use her ability on the Pinehearst contracted player, but is stopped mid-action due to the eclipse. The player immediately recuperates with no apparent brain damage. (Chapter 3 of Operation Bad Blood)
- In an alternate ending, Anna uses her ability to make the Pinehearst contracted player fall unconscious and into a three month coma. When the player wakes up in Pinehearst Headquarters, a doctor says the player has zero upper brain activity and that the condition is irreversible. The doctor adds that their monkeys downstairs have more intellectual function and euthanasia is ordered. When the termination solution is injected into the player's IV causing the player's heat rate to completely stop, the player doesn't notice or care. (Chapter 3 of Operation Bad Blood)
- Anna recalls how she used her ability on her own family when she was about 13. After hearing her parents arguing, she had headaches and enhanced senses for a short time before passing out. When she woke up, she had converted the minds of the rest of her family to an animal-like state. (Chapter 4 of Operation Bad Blood)
- In an alternate ending, Anna uses her ability selectively for the first time to free herself and the Pinehearst contracted player from a Primatech facility. The Primatech agents are disabled but Anna and the player are unharmed. (Chapter 5 of Operation Bad Blood)
- Anna uses her ability on the Kill Squad to stop them from harming herself and Red Eye. The squad members' reduced mental state allows Red Eye to then apply his own ability on all of them simultaneously until they have killed each other off. (Red Eye, Part 1)
- Anna uses her ability simultaneously on most of the staff and customers in a restaurant, causing everyone except for Rachel and Jason to become motionless and stare blankly. An eight-year-old girl in the restaurant is affected more severely, and collapses onto the ground with drool trickling out of her mouth. (Chapter 6 of The Agent)
- In an alternate storyline, Anna raises her hand and uses her ability on Jason Pierce, causing everything for him to become gray and blank. (Chapter 6 of The Agent)
- Anna uses her ability to temporarily cause two agents to collapse onto the ground. (Chapter 7 of The Agent)
- Upon approaching the aftermath of the battle at the circus, Rachel encounters many agents whose eyes wander blankly due to the affects of Anna's ability. She also sees a prisoner the agents have captured, and notices that his face is blank similar to the rest of Anna's zombies. (Chapter 10 of The Agent)
Notes[]
- The term "neurocognitive deficit" is referred to in the Mozaic file (The Fix), but the reference does not explicitly note Anna or the Haitian as having it as their ability. Also, although this term encompasses all of the effects known to be produced by Anna's ability, and even part, but not necessarily all, of the Haitian's ability, it is not clear as to whether the term "neurocognitive deficit" also refers to the Haitian due to the unknown nature of his power blocking.
- In an email, writer David Wohl clarified Anna's ability a bit: "...as far as I know, she has the ability to sort of short circuit people's minds. At first she was only able to go full bore and her victims were permanently disabled with what amounted to an overwhelming psionic blast, but now, as she studies more, she's finding she has more control over her power and can make the effects only temporary. In my mind, she didn't erase people's memories (unlike the Haitian), they just didn't remember what happened because the event was so traumatic, like people who have brain injuries never remember the accident. I think that as she gains more focus and understanding, she could pinpoint different areas of the victim's brain and cause different effects, but that's just me! The Haitian seems to have much more control over his power than Anna does. She's more raw."
Gallery[]
See Also[]
- For the Haitian's similar ability of shutting down the upper brain functions of others, as well as suppressing their abilities or erasing their memories, see Mental Manipulation.