Neuroscience and Karma

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

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Neuroscience & Karma
of the senses, were the essential activities of imeiligence. He found that brighter cbildern performed at a mental age are advanced than their chronological age. An intelligence enotien, or Qcould be computed by dividing a cbild's mental age by kis/her chronological age and multiply. ing that number hy 100. Tbe Stanford-Binct Intelligeike Scake, ao IQ test is still used today. The Spectrum of Intellect
The attempt to define intelligence as a single general ability has been complicated by the discovery that the brain's left hemisphere appears to be analytical, linear and verbal wbile the right one ie synthetic, holistic and imagistic. Right and left hemisphere faculties could make for quite a spectrum of human intellect - from the mechanical or artistic genjuses on the one hand, who can bardly express themselves in writing or speech, to the bighiy articulate individuals at the other extreme, who think almost entirely in verbal terms.
What then do intelligence tests test? The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scaic, Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) measure our aptitude for convergent thinking or the ability to logically deduce correct answers. Divergent thinking, the ability to discover new answers considered crucial to creativity not measured by intelligence tests. Ability to get along witb people, inusical and artistic aptitudes and the mental gymnastics needed to play intricate games like chess, also, cannot by measured by intelligence lest.
The fact that individual intellectual capabilities differ is as undeniable as the existence of the genius and the retarded. But the question is what are the causes of the difference ? Heredity, environment or something else such as karman ? The range of a person's potential intellectual development is determined by heredity as well as karman while the environment determines the extent of development within that range.
1. The relevent karman is jñānāvarana; the degree of removal/subsidence of
mati-jnanavarana and fruta-jñanavarana is the main determinant of the person's intellectual development.