i think he did do something. when he was observing her brain, he made little move and a lite "click" could be heard. idk what it was, but i'm banking her change on this.
__________________ Still looking for that sig....
In the mean time, I never DID see that anime where I unintentionally got my name from. Is it any good
I agree. Sylar is the master tinker after all. He sees how the mind works so he can imitate the same things. It's very possible that he can tinker with Claire's mind to make her not feel pain.
It could very well be that. It could be that her body decided enough is enough and shut out all pain. That's a different possibility than Sylar actually altering her brain to make her not feel pain anymore. See? You yourself acknowledge two different possibilities. Therefore, we don't know for sure why Claire can no longer feel pain.
He can see how her mind works, but he never did anything to her brain besides touch it with his fingertips. If he could change the way her brain works, he could have simply shut down her power and killed her.
I don't think it was that he altered her brain, just that he poked around in it. There was a moment where he kinda said something like 'Aha, there it is...' and did some poking...
I am assuming that the lack of pain is related to Sylar's cranial poke-around.