Neuroscience and Karma

Author(s): Jethalal S Zaveri, Mahendramuni
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 63

Language of the Brain
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that the most sophisticated computer provides a very inadequate niodel of the human brain. But an understanding of the principles -- transfer of information' and the 'software' or system of programmes - can give us much insight of the brain's working. The conceptions of code and language are particularly important.
The units of the neural code are : brain, sense-organs, and nervecells. The brain is the controller, issuing orders for actions, after it has decoded (understood) the signals it receives from the sense-organ via the nerves. Nerve-cells are units of brain which initiate most of our actions. We sleep or work, go walking or eating or reading because our brains contain active cells that operate when we choose to do these things. Discussion of whether the cells of the brain do these things or allow some other agent - the mind to work through them will come much later. Suffice it to say here that mind always influences not only our reflex actions but also emotional ones. (c.g. tears roll down at a touching scene in a film). The brain is, therefore, subject to information fromoutside and influences from within. 2. Simplified Version of Brain Action
How is the brain able to produce all the complex actions of a human life? The essence of this power lies in the great number and variety of nerve-cells, their connections and their activities. Each one of the several thousands million nerve-cells in the human cortex corresponds to one of the following :1. A small part of one particular feature of change going on in the
environment. 2. Some small parts of a memory-record of past external change
or
3. Some small part of the instruction for an action that can be done by
the body.
This is indeed an over-simplification of the action of our cells from moment to moment. Thus nerve-cells are the letters of the cerebral ulphabet. Combinations of them compose the words, sentences,