IUBio

brain sizes: Einstein's and women's

John Knight johnknight at usa.com
Thu Jul 18 16:08:56 EST 2002


"Didier A. Depireux" <didier at tango.isr.umd.edu> wrote in message
news:ah782h$h9r$1 at grapevine.wam.umd.edu...
> In bionet.neuroscience Bob LeChevalier <lojbab at lojban.org> wrote:
> > "John Knight" <johnknight at usa.com> wrote:
>
> > Elephants and whales have significantly larger brains than humans
>
> A good part of the weight of a sperm whale's brain is the pyramidal tract
> that send motor commands down the spinal cord. In terms of number of
neurons
> where it matters for intelligence (association areas, e.g.), they are
> 'behind' us.
>
> Didier
>
> --
> Didier A Depireux         ddepi001 at umaryland.edu  didier at isr.umd.edu
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Thanks for that update.  Can you quantify that difference?  How much smaller
than man's brain is the part of the whale brain used for intelligence?

John Knight





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