a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by EvoAnth
EvoAnth  ·  4309 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Paying For Our Big Brains

That is a rather interesting talk. When you look at mammal brains they all have a very similar structure. The human brain, for all intents and purposes, is just an enlarged chimp brain. So it's easy to forget that other groups are just plain freaky in the neuron department.





gordonz88  ·  4308 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Intelligence doesn't directly vary with size either, that's the scary thing. Look at whales, blue whales, sperm whales, etc. They don't have politics or war.

EvoAnth  ·  4304 days ago  ·  link  ·  

As a general rule brain size relative to body size is a good predictor of intelligence, although other measures can be better in different lineages. For example, primates have a high neuron density thus absolute brain size is a good predictor of intelligence amongst them.

This high neuronal density also means that humans - despite not having the biggest brains - appear to have the most neurons of any animal.