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Neuroscience & Karma
The buman pattern of a long childhood is genetically determined. Other mammals become mature, immediately they have stopped growing. Only in man and apes is there a long period of immaturity followed by rapid pre-adolescent growth spurt. It seems likely that extession of the period of childhood is related to the acquisition of social skills, which will be only learned if the child is obcdient to his ekders. During childhood the child is mostly concerned with its own life in the immediate present. His own homeostasis is his primary interest in these early years and for long after and meeting his ow cmotional and physical needs may be a requirement for maturation Here cognition and emotion are never wholly separate, because of the interaction of brain processes. 3. The Programs for Adolescence
To emphasize the place that emotion plays in the unfolding of the programs, consider what happens at adolesceace. An internal biological clock, that has been ticking, begins to send signals to the pincal gland which had been producing a hormone, melatonin, which inhibited the maturity of the sex glands. Now the pineal begins to remove the inhibition and allows maturation to start. Simultaneously, the hypothalamus sends chemical signals to the pituitary to release gonadotropic hormones. We have no control over the clock and there is ample evidence that factors such as climate or food have little effect also. Sex hormones, now released from the ovary or festis, produce a damatic change in her or his physical and emotional condition. A sudden growth spurt is sparked adding as much as 15 to 18 cms in a year. The brain also continues to develop some of the human characteristics with appropriate inputs at series of critical or sensitive periods. Leaming consists both by selection among the many possible pathways in the brain as well as instruction. It may well be that the emergence of new potentialities, requiring new stimuli, continues far on into the adult life. Growth in height stops entirely by the age of 18 to 21 in boys and 16 to 18 in girls. 4. Aging and Death
During the long adult life, active growth oases; cells that wear out or are destroyed by accident or disease are replaced and a dynamic equilibrium is maintained. But ultimately, the repair processes become less efficient and cannot adequately replace the day-to-day losses.
