IUBio

Size of brain and size of skull

Ian at dragoncon.netdeletethis Ian at dragoncon.netdeletethis
Fri May 28 03:30:34 EST 1999


On 27 May 1999 15:17:23 GMT, didier at Glue.umd.edu (Didier A. Depireux)
wrote:

>	The posting about the girl and her thalamic damage and related
>microcephaly reminded me of a question I have always had.  In a chicken and
>egg type of question, I always wanted to know whether the skull determines
>the size of the brain, or does the brain determines the size of the skull?
>
>	In other words, if you have a small head, is it because you have a
>small brain; or is it that if you have a small brain, you skull will be
>small. I would assume that the space between the brain surface and the
>skull is a constant.
>
>
>						Didier

I think the limitation is the size of the birth canal. Its pointless
having a larger brain if you die during birth, probably killing your
mother in the process. How surgical techniques will influence this in
the future will be interesting.

ian




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