We can then sculpt intelligent and compassionate 'designer babies' and future citizens of the planet
An unequivocal praise that all friends and acquaintances visiting Gujarat lavish on us is our super cool toad network. Our highways, district and village roads are among the best in the country, and even better than many across the globe! Some of the best, reflective breakfast moments are those that I have had on the smooth, Vadodara expressway. I would relish the Bhakri, with dollops of ghee and jaggery. The background of green farms would host a pageant of cars, buses, and vehicles of different sizes and colours moving on the expressway.
Similarly, I have been deeply inspired by some of the beautiful minds that I have come across. Conversation and ideas on a variety of topics, subjects and issues would be discussed and shared effortlessly. These interactions would not have irksome jolts or dead ends. This would make one want to continue the conversation for hours, exploring various nuanced ideas. With easy cognitive traction and movement, this would add to ones' knowledge and understanding of big and small things.
These instances are possible due to the excellent network of smooth, highways in those minds, allowing for a comfortable, smooth 'vehicular' movement of various kinds of information and knowledge. These neural networks, analogous to the expressway road network, make information travel on them. They ferry information at incredible speeds, helping us get a grip on various issues, topics and matters. A terrain without roads would dissipate lots of energy, time and resources, should vehicles try moving across. Similarly, less developed neural networks in the brain, make the assimilation, and digestion of information and understanding very difficult.
In the year 2000, two economists won the Nobel Prize for some pioneering work in this domain. The research by James Joseph Heckmann and Daniel McFadden showed that interventions in the first 1000 days of the development of a new human life yielded 48 times the economic benefits. However, by age 18, the return on investment was close to zero. Given the plasticity of the brain, the window of the first 1000 days following conception was when 100 billion neurons were sprouting, crackling and being created in the foetal brain, at a mind-boggling pace! These billions of neurons are supposed to have a trillion connections, which actually 'make' our Intelligence.
Now, going back to the 1000 days, it has been found that the 270 days of pregnancy created neurons and networks at an astounding speed. Then, this continued at a somewhat high speed until the age of two years. In the young embryo, what is it that causes these neural networks to form? 'Who lays these highways and roads in the 'shop floor' within the brain of the foetus?' one may ask. Various sensory stimuli are the actors that cause the neural networks to get built. Taking this forward, the pregnant lady experiences a variety of stimuli for her sense, such as different smells, sounds, tastes, sights and textures that she touches. A variety of these nuances stimuli would enhance the quantity and quality of the cognition of her yet-to-be-born baby. Similarly, on being born, these stimuli again augment the neural networks. The baby now develops an excellent, smooth network of neural pathways for absorbing, processing and digesting a host of information.
In other words, this would immensely boost the cognitive development of the child. Yet another very critical factor for the physical, cognitive and emotive development of the baby is the emotional state of the mother. If we try to completely reduce the emotional stress on the mother-to-be or the young mother, this will go a long way in the wholesome development of her baby, accentuating the physical, cognitive and emotional development.
Can we also practice and share these ideas with young men and women, mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, around us? That way, we can have great minds with super-smooth network of intelligence, wisdom and compassion. The laurels for these evolved minds would eclipse the paeans for our roads. We can then sculpt intelligent and compassionate 'designer babies' and future citizens of the planet.
The author is a Harvard-educated civil servant & writer, and has worked in the education sector
jayanti.ravi.dna@gmail.com
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