IUBio

Norway's blubber mountain

Didier A. Depireux didier at Glue.umd.edu
Tue Jan 12 10:33:56 EST 1999


Masaaki Ishida (ishida at fuchinobe.skk.slb.com) wrote:
: William A. Levinson wrote:
: > Seriously, whales are intelligent creatures with brains as large or
: > larger than our own. I would be hesitant to consume them for that

: Is it agreed among scientists that large brain indicates intelligence?

It certainly is agreed that it's not the case. When it come to brain
mass/body mass ratios, I think that the ferret stands out.  While there is
a correlation between an animal being intelligent (by our definitions) and
the brain being massive, a large brain does not imply intelligence.

There's an extensive review by Este Armstrong in 'The human nervous system'
about that very question.

					Didier

--
Didier A Depireux                              didier at isr.umd.edu
Neural Systems Lab                 http://www.isr.umd.edu/~didier
Institute for Systems Research          Phone: 301-405-6557 (off)
University of Maryland                                -6596 (lab)
College Park MD 20742 USA                     Fax: 1-301-314-9920



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