Noble laureate seeks brain's secrets
Noble laureate seeks brain's secrets
By Ati Nurbaiti
JAKARTA (JP): A young man from mainland China who failed an
entrance examination at a prestigious British university turned
out to be a grand master in chess.
What happened? The test failed to take several factors into
consideration.
"A language which uses pitch uses a different part of the
brain," says neurologist and 1976 Noble prize laureate, Daniel
Carleton Gajdusek, of the United States.
Similarly, applying standard intelligence tests to the deaf
will make them seem like they are mentally inferior. However, the
fact the deaf communicate through sign language shows they can
master anything there is to know.
Irianese
Gajdusek cited yet another example of how testing, which is
often specialized, fails to grasp the full extent of a person's
capabilities. He said an Irianese, whose entire family was
illiterate and who was illiterate himself, now teaches
mathematics at a university. Gajdusek, 71, refused to identify
the man, saying he will not betray his friend, who has asked that
his name and whereabouts be kept confidential.
Through a lifetime of research and practice as a pediatrician
and neurologist, to mention a few of his fields of expertise,
Gajdusek has traveled with colleagues and lived in a number of
societies to observe how a child learns, what causes defects and
how to overcome them.
By researching cultures and subcultures, such as that of the
deaf in a hearing society, Gajdusek has discovered the rich
diversity of how people learn, of how they use their brains.
Much depends on culture and upbringing, he said.
His experience brings Gajdusek to believe that scientists must
look out for cultural differences. "Methods in measuring
intelligence are biased, picked for a given purpose," he said.
Just try using the standard tests to pick an expert gamelan
player, or Balinese dancer, Gajdusek suggested. Or imagine the
results if someone had given Albert Einstein a music test. "He
was a rotten musician, tone deaf," but classic music helped
inspire the renowned scientist.
For his dedication, Gajdusek received the Noble prize, which,
he said, was nothing that he had hoped for.
"You don't make good science hoping for some prize," said the
man with at least 15 awards to his name, besides a long list of
honorary memberships.
And when a researcher does receive recognition, it would be an
insult, he said, if it were from some unknowing masses instead of
a bunch of people who know what you are doing.
Luck
Pure fun and play, he says, and luck, is what a good scientist
builds his work on, besides thinking, talking and even gossiping
instead of being burdened with administrative work.
And don't expect your trainees to take much of your advice, or
even be interested in your assignments, if you really hope they
will turn out to be creative, original thinkers. "Look how
children play ... it's us who take away the creativity from
them," he said.
But those who benefit from his work will surely not only
procure fun. From Sumatra to Irian Jaya and from New York to
Guam, Gajdusek and his team, who study child growth and
development and disease patterns, have identified the causes of
signs of aging among the young.
"We found it is a chronic calcium deficiency," he said.
"It kills people of 20 to 70 years old," he said during a
visit here. He was sharing insights with fellow researchers at
the National Research Council in Serpong, West Java.
The signs include paralysis, shaking, breathing difficulties
and changes in brain function, similar to the symptoms of
Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.
"You have some 100 cases in Jakarta, and in Irian Jaya I found
a much higher incidence," said Gajdusek.
This is not something new -- Gajdusek has visited Irian Jaya
since the late 1950s, and returns with his team every year to
check on this disease.
Even birds cannot lay eggs in the area due to the lack of
calcium in foods in the region.
Exposure
But gradual exposure to the outside world as new roads go in
have brought in a more variety of food than sago. "This disease
has much declined."
And why Irian Jaya? People in isolated areas, also in
Micronesia and Australia, are the targets of Gajdusek and his
team at the Study of Child Growth and Development and Disease
Patterns in Primitive Cultures, where he is director.
"We would need a much larger budget" to track down necessary
blood relatives of respondents in metropolitan areas like Jakarta
and New York, he said.
In modern families, spouses often come from a different ethnic
background, and siblings often live far apart.
"While in Irian, I see (paralysis) signs in a child, I ask him
about his brothers and sisters and I get all 40 of them in 15
minutes."
Gajdusek, unmarried, has probably the most diverse family in
the world. He has 54 adopted children, mostly from Papua New
Guinea and Micronesia. They range from an eight-year-old to
artists and university professors and drop-outs.
Some of them now live with him in his Maryland home in the
United States.