The Case for Multidisciplinary Research Efforts in Mental Retardation
mal-general intellectual functioning depends ultimately on two basic factors: physiological functioning of the central nervous system and environmental interaction. The old “naturenurture” controversy is no longer relevant (Hirsch, 1963; McClearn, 1964). Innate physiological functioning is determined by inheritance, and our present understanding of it has come mainly from scientists working in the fields of neuroanatomy, neuropathology, neurophysiology, biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology. Interactions with the environment can both The Cast? for Multidisciplinary Research Efforts in Mental Retardation increase and decrease general inherited intelligence. Those environmental interactions which Droduce