In the premiere of S3 when Sylar had Claire's head cut open and he has his hand in her brain what does he do?

He eats it...


Truthfully.. just studies it.

Moves the squishy stuff around so he can see how it works.

Study it. Plain and simple.

Sylar's original ability is to figure out how things work.
He figures out how her brain works and how it uses the power.

Then why are brains missing when they show previous victims of sylar? They are missing right?

I'm sure when he was first starting out he didn't have it profected yet and took the brain. I mean he also did things that we're not TKing the brain open, she he had trail and error.

The best way to see it is Sylar brakes open the head like the face of a watch to see how the gears work and somehow he is able to change his own brain or DNA to do the same thing.

Only Charlie's was definitively intact.

It took him a while to find Claire's power center. On other victims, it may have been toward the bottom of the brain, requiring Sylar to remove it to get what he needed.

He "super intuits" the neural information into his own brain. His body / brain "learns" from the brains he "studies". In doing so, his body / brain intuitively "steals" the power.

... at least in part.

It probably took him a while on all of the victims.

It has been said that the adrenal gland (I think) is what produces the ability. If that were the case wouldn’t Sylar just need to see the same part of everyone’s brain?

Thanks to everyone who responded

Don't assume the adrenal glands are in the brain.

Not necessarily. The adrenals, which are perched on top of the kidneys, are the power source. The brain contains the necessary "wiring" to let them use the ability though.

Now, since each ability is different, it makes sense that the "wiring" would be different, and even located in different portions of the brain. Thus, Sylar is never going to find it in the exact same spot.

But say if two powers are exactly the same, would he find it in the same spot?

Possibly, but unlikely.

Because, even if the power looks the same, it's used differently. (West and Nathan are a classic example. Nathan flies like a fighter pilot- fast and hard. West flies more like Peter freakin' Pan.)

It was because Nathan is a fighter while West was more a "lover".

Sorry and thank you. I am not a doctor in any way shape or form.

This is the question then. How dose Mohinder use the Maya/Mohinder juice to get powers without changing his brain? I would have guessed that the powers had nothing to do with the brain's wiring.
The power is in the adrenalin/blood.

I always took it that Sylar told us how he gets the power in Season One.

When he's talking to Mohinder and pretending to be Zane Taylor he speaks about his epiphany.

He talks about emotions and i think he was telling us that that's how he activates the power.

If you think one way, your brain will do a certain thing, if you think another your brain will d something different.

I think Sylar studies the brain to see how to activate the power and then, thinks a certain way and it activates the adrenal glands and gives him the new ability.

These are just my thoughts but someone should ask the writers to see if I'm right!

Bodily functions don't do much of anything without the brain telling them what to do, autonomously, or by will. Folks like Christopher Reeve can't even breath when the brain stem, which connects the brain to the rest of the body, is damaged.

As far as Mohinder's "miracle juice", I'd think his adrenals will either run out of it, or simply produce the effect continuously (since the brain has no godcenter nor the 4 simple genes of an evolved human). The former would require additional injections over time. The latter would cause burn-out.

It's an artifical ability - therefore it's different. An example is a person who's leg was blown off. They can get an artifical one, and it'll do most, if not all of the same things a real one does, but it'll never be as flexible etc. At least, that's my take on it. What I find interesting is that Sylar won't be able to take any of these powers, if they're not centred in the brain - will Peter be able to absorb them?

I think the Mohinder Injection rewired his brain. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to use the power it gave him.

It is, however, a false power so it is highly unstable.

Or maybe, the mutant adrenaline is what allows the power to manifest, but the wiring required for superpower is in everyone's brain (presumably the ~90% unused space myth that the show is using)
I am guessing that everyone's brain, whether normal or special, has a certain wiring that gives it a potential to use certain powers... these wiring controls the mutant adrenaline, which causes the body to manifests these abilities... And it is possible that the mutant adrenaline is identical for all superhumans, the differences in their powers are only in their brain...

In normal individuals, with the lack of the mutant adrenaline, even if the wiring for abilities are there, they cannot be used to manifest powers --> thus they become the 90% "unused brain functions"...

In Mohinder, the injection of the mutant adrenaline allows his "90% unused space" to be activated to produce his powers... Since his brain is wired differently from Maya, so despite the fact that he used the adrenaline extracted from her, his manifested power is completely different from hers...

And that maybe why Sylar only needs to look at the brain, but not examine the biochemistry of the mutant adrenaline, to steal the powers... He already have the mutant adrenaline, he only needs to rewire whatever's left of his "90%" in the brain to reproduce these powers...

Sylar probably just dumped the brains in a dumpster.

So basically the adrenaline/mutant adrenaline allows a person to access parts of the brain that we currently are unable to access, like a bridge. Sylar just has to know what part of his brain to activate.

That's what I'm guessing based on what Chandra and Mohinder had found and said on the show, what Sylar does to gain powers, and how Mohinder gained powers...

Not exactly. In order to be evolved, one must have the "4 simple genes" Mohinder referenced in S1. It's a combination of things. Since Mohinder does not have the genes, but he does have the mutant adrenaline from the injection, all sorts of weirdness could/will happen.

I'd like to add: it was mentioned that, early on, Sylar took the brains to study them more intently. This probably happens less after he collects Charlie's power - enhanced learning and memory capability would mean less time needed to probe around someone's brain - especially if the brain's neural networks for the ability are similar (as in having the "wiring" for certain abilities such as flight, regeneration, telepathy, etc.)

Not to mention he's better at it. Sylar had a lot of on the job experience before he even figured out he could TK someone's head open.

Yes, Wrath22, we have previously visited this idea. The adrenal gland (locus ceruleus) effects various areas of the brain responsible for different abilities. Gabriel has studied the brain and has some idea where these areas (e.g., visual and motor neocortex centers, paleocortex center, archicortex center...) are to be found. Moreover, he seeks to eliminate the competition (killing all but Claire) in his destructive power grabbing neurological examinations. Brain removal accommodates this.

So, having the knowledge (IA and pertinent knowledge about powers) and the building materials (HEB genes) Gabriel can reproduce the usurped powers in himself by way of observation (brain studying).

As usual, you continue to advance the conversation. Thank you.

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