IUBio

Dolphin brain

TonyJeffs2 tonyjeffs2 at aol.comTonyJ
Sat Jan 23 18:44:19 EST 1999


In article <36A9ECEC.3393 at earthlink.net>, Marcello Spinella
<marshmallow at earthlink.net> writes:

>Elepants have bigger brains too. That doesnt make them smarter
>necessarily.  More important is the ratio of brain size to body size.
>
Hi,
I didn't know that about elephants!
The brain/bodyweight ratio is often quoted when comparing animals, but you
would have a difficult task convincing me that a 4 gram animal with a 2 gram
brain is more intelligent than a human.  .  Irrespective of body weight, a 
smaller brain means less neurons which must surely mean less processing power.

It depends of course which parts of the brain are bigger or smaller in
different species.. Areas of the brain  devoted to movement and dexterity, or
to  homeostasis, wouldn't effect intelligence.  Parts involved in memory such
as the hippocampus probably would.

Tony
>





More information about the Neur-sci mailing list

Send comments to us at biosci-help [At] net.bio.net