Comments on: On the Possible Shapes of the Brain

By: Bob In Portland

Bob In Portland — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:07:54 +0000

I seem to remember a public television story on the Flores People wherein there was a discussion about not only their smaller brain size but also a unique frontal lobe development which presumably compensated for the overall lack of size. Anyone know more about this?

By: Eike

Eike — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 23:58:25 +0000

peter: The neocortex is almost vestigial in the avian brain.
Mammalial brain architecture is quite inefficient volume-by-volume compared to the avian one, possibly 2 orders of magnitude worse. (Wonder what the “intelligent” design crowd has to say about this)

More: http://avianbrain.org/

By: Kathleen Bartholomew

Kathleen Bartholomew — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 19:05:39 +0000

“Chances are, the Talosians wouldn’t look like short middle-aged men wearing smocks, with foam padding pasted to their scalps.”

Just FYI: the actors portraying the Talosians were elderly women – thus the slight bodies and delicate features.

By: Jack

Jack — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 02:44:18 +0000

wrinkles are a way of increasing surface area without compromising volume; wrinkles inside a skull are not designed to act as a radiator for cooling.

By: Hendrick

Hendrick — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 05:20:41 +0000

I would like to know how large our brain would become if it wasn’t housed inside our skull…any thoughts?

By: peter

peter — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 22:58:49 +0000

I am not that familiar with the morphology of avian brains except that they are relatively small (light weight?) and not heavily convoluted yet a crow is more intelligent that many mammals of equivalent size with perhaps larger brains. You need a lot of neurons to make a fancy brain but wrinkling may not be the only way to accomplish this. Also, as in cephalopods, you can distribute the ‘brain’ at many different sites throughout the organism.

By: Madhu

Madhu — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 07:01:57 +0000

I,m not so sure about what makes someone geniious?I think size doesn’t, matter it’s someone,s knowledge ,interest,ability and so forth…

By: Kudzu

Kudzu — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 05:45:24 +0000

‘Coretext’? Possibly a spelling mistake in that sixth paragraph.

I have previously seen studies that related brain size to wrinkliness, postulating that wrinkles existed to cool the brain. This recent study explains both those results and offers (to me) a more plausible explanation.

By: Lucas Blijdschap

Lucas Blijdschap — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 18:02:46 +0000

What if we use computers to ‘enlarge’ it?

By: Armin Müller

Armin Müller — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 16:56:20 +0000

Homo Neandertalensis 40000 years ago had bigger brains then we have now. It was not to their advantage. May be it consumed too much energy, which forced them to hunt for meat all day. This in turn may have hindered them to set aside some time and effort to develop culture and higher level abilities. So you need not only the capacity of thinking but also the peace and curiosity to develop thought and culture.