Book Title: Neuroscience and Karma
Author(s): Jethalal S Zaveri, Mahendramuni
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 87
________________ Needing and Nourishing normal actions of the brain very crudely. Thus, the operations of the whole system determine not only how actions are normally related to bodily needs but also, in man, how the rewards are influenced by the activities of certain brain-areas and the chemical substances contained by them. These areas are responsible for the quality of affection, pleasure, satisfaction or the reverse. 49 These reward - centers are influenced by signals coming both from outside the body and within it, including, for example, those from the nose and from the taste-buds of the tongue. A specially interesting pathway begins in the cells of the locus coeruleus, lying near the taste-centers of the medulla oblongata showing some relationship between the sensation of taste and the drive to search for food. 4. Selection by Instinct In ancient times, both men and animal had the instinct to guide them to find whatever they needed to keep them healthy and to detect and reject the poisonous and unhealthy. They made special efforts to meet particular deficiencies. Children, for example, deficient in calcium, will cat plaster. Some of these capacities for selection of taking what is needed and rejecting what is harmful are certainly innate while others are learned. Unfortunately, while the animals have retained the capacity, humans, with progress of civilization, gradually lost the instinct to a great extent.

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172