The elephant's brain is the largest brain among all land mammals that live on our planet. It is located at the back of the head and occupies a small part of the volume of the skull. Let's consider the main characteristics and features of the brain of these animals, and also compare it with the human brain.
Types of elephants
Currently, three species of these animals live on our planet:
- African elephants. They live across much of Africa and are the largest species of terrestrial animals. Large specimens of these animals reach 7.5 meters in length, 3.3 meters in height and weigh up to 6 tons. The tusks of this species of elephant grow throughout their lives, in both males and females. The African elephant has large ears to release more heat into the atmosphere. This species is endangered due to poaching.
- Indian elephants. This species of elephant lives mainly in India. Its specimens grow up to 6.4 m in length and up to 2-3.5 m in height. The elephant is dark gray in color. It occupies an important place in Indian culture.
- Asian elephants. These elephants are the largest. They reach a length of 6.4 m and a height of 3 m. The weight of an adult individual is within 5 tons. Unlike the African elephant, they have small ears that constantly move to cool the animal's head. Most males do not have tusks.
Some facts about the elephant brain
Here are some important facts characterizing the brains of the largest land animals on the planet:
- the brain of newly born elephant calves is 35% of the mass of the brain of an adult animal;
- elephants are among the most intelligent animals on Earth;
- the brain of an African male has a mass of 4.2 to 5.4 kilograms, while the brain of an African female weighs 3.6-4.3 kilograms;
- The process of brain development in elephants is similar to that of humans.
The Importance of Brain Size
Although the elephant's brain is the largest of any mammal on Earth, it occupies only a small area at the back of the animal's head. If we take the ratio of brain weight to body weight, it turns out that this figure for elephants will be less than for humans. Be that as it may, the elephant is the only animal, along with primates and sperm whales, that has a fairly high ratio of brain size to body size.
Brain size is important because it correlates with an animal's mental flexibility, or intelligence, as it is commonly called, and also determines the complex social structures and relationships within a population of these animals.
How much does the brain weigh in males and females?
In both the African and Indian elephants, brain size depends on whether the individual is male or female. The weight of the brain of male African elephants is 0.6-1.1 kg greater than the weight of females of this species, and amounts to 4.2-5.4 kg. It is important to note that this difference in brain weight of animals does not in any way affect their mental abilities.
Many studies of elephant behavior have demonstrated quite intelligent behavior of female elephants, which are in no way inferior to male elephants. This is explained by the fact that it is not the weight of the brain itself that is important for intelligent behavior, but the ratio of its mass to body weight. Since female elephants are, as a rule, smaller in size than males, the difference in this ratio is practically zero. In addition, the consciousness itself in females is very different from that of males, since they are attached to their mothers and, starting from early childhood, form stable bonds with other females of their herd, which they maintain throughout their lives. Males are more solitary nomads.
Brain Development
It is interesting to note that the brain of elephants develops similarly to the brain of primates, including humans. Elephants and humans are born with a small brain mass: in an elephant it is 35% of the adult brain mass, and in humans it is 26%.
These numbers suggest that there is potential for significant brain development in animals as they grow. As brain mass increases, various abilities, including mental ones, are actively developed in young elephants. Studies conducted on the behavior of elephants, as well as the anatomy of their brain, indicate that elephants are very smart animals.
Elephants are smart animals
Thanks to their developed brain, elephants remember the location of oases with water during periods of drought and are able to recognize the bones of their dead relatives. They can even love. Elephants are able to identify whether a given person is dangerous for them or not, since animals distinguish between people of different ethnic groups, distinguish between human languages, age and gender. Dolphins and whales have similar abilities. It has been observed that young elephants learn from their older relatives throughout their lives.
For example, one population of African elephants lives near the territory where the Maasai tribes live. Elephants are afraid of the people of this tribe, since conflicts often break out between animals and the Maasai due to the lack of vital resources, which is a common problem in Africa. The animals learned to recognize the smell and red color of the clothes of the tribe's people.
Scottish scientists from the University of St. Andrews have found that the developed brain of elephants allows them to understand many human gestures without prior training. This fantastic discovery puts elephants in first place among animals capable of understanding human sign language. Thanks to this ability of animals, they were domesticated and a strong friendly bond was established between the elephant and its owner, despite the danger of the elephant and its large size.
Comparison of elephant and human brains
If mental capabilities depended only on the mass of the brain, then knowing how much a person’s brain weighs (approximately 1.4 kg), one could say that he is much stupider than an elephant, since the animal’s brain weighs 3-3.5 times more.
Also, mental capabilities cannot be equated with the ratio of brain and body masses. For example, for a human this figure is 1/40, and for an elephant - 1/560, but for small birds the ratio is 1/12.
The difference in mental capabilities is not associated with the mass or volume of the brain of an elephant and a person, but with structural features. Most scientists are inclined to believe that human mental abilities are associated with the complex structure of his cerebral cortex, which includes 16 billion neurons, and in this indicator significantly exceeds the brain of any animal, including the elephant, which has less in the cortex. 3 times more neurons than humans. Each human neuron is capable of forming tens of thousands of connections with others. In addition, all neurons of the brain are packed into several layers, which leads to an increase in their density compared to the elephant brain.
As for the elephant, it should be noted that the structure of its cerebral cortex is different from that of primates. In particular, it contains a larger number of cell types, which, according to scientists, plays an important role in the manifestation of the mental abilities of these animals.
Scientists study and determine the ratio of brain volume to the volume of bodies of living creatures on Earth. They also found out which animal has the heaviest brain. It is known that among people there are record holders for brain weight.
Who has the largest brain in relation to their body?
Comparing the ratio of brain mass to body mass, it turned out that among vertebrates the hummingbird occupies first place. For this bird this ratio is 1/12. It would be possible to determine the relationship among invertebrates, but they do not have a brain as such, but they do have nerve nodes or ganglia. If you calculate the ratio by comparing the mass of nerve endings with the body mass of invertebrates, it turns out that the ant is the record holder. Its ratio is 1/4.If a person had a 1/4 ratio, like an ant, the head would weigh at least twenty kilograms, and would be about eight times larger. However, the ant's brain is forty thousand times smaller than the human brain when compared to the number of cells that make it up.
Scientists conducted research and experiments to understand whether the ant has intelligence. It turned out that these miniature insects are able to generalize and synthesize the information they receive.
Ants can learn, they mature gradually, which confirms their complex social appearance. And the more complex the species, the more time the ant spends learning. It is the nervous system that prevents ants from being considered intelligent animals. Due to the fact that the brain of this insect consists of five hundred thousand neurons, it is not capable of thinking. A number of scientists believe that among ants there is a distribution of the brain between members of the colony. This distribution is comparable to connecting computers via the Internet to solve specific problems.
It turns out that each ant is a small particle of a huge superbrain. This is a mystery for scientists that they are trying to solve. There is a version that they act in concert thanks to radio waves or telepathy.
This coincidence is surprising - this ratio in humans is the same as in the Mormyrus fish or the elephant fish. It is equal to 1\38-1\50. Among fish, it is the Mormirus fish that has the largest ratio of brain mass to its body mass.
Having studied the ratio of interest among primates, it was found that it is greatest not in humans at all, but in the Squirrel Monkey or Saimiri. This ratio for this primate is 1/17.
Animals with big brains
Researchers, after observing dozens of different species of animals, concluded that those whose absolute brain volume is larger have better control over their behavior. We are not talking about the mass of the brain, but about its relationship to the volume of the body. Interestingly, monkeys, wolves, and carnivorous dogs showed good self-control, but the elephant showed poor results.You can evaluate the brain not by the ratio of its volume to body volume, but by size. There are several record holders. It is known that among terrestrial animals the elephant has the largest brain mass. About five kilograms – that’s how much the brain of an Indian elephant weighs.
The record holder among all living creatures on the planet for brain weight is the whale Physeter Macrocephalus. The brain of this animal can reach nine kilograms. However, if you calculate the ratio of brain to body, you get 1/40,000. The weight of a whale's brain depends on its age and species. It is known that the blue whale is much larger than the sperm whale, but its brain is smaller and weighs only six kilograms and eight hundred grams.
Another owner of a big brain is the northern beluga dolphin. Its brain weighs two kilograms, three hundred and fifty grams, while that of the bottlenose dolphin weighs only one kilogram, seven hundred and thirty-five grams.
The living creature of the planet with a big brain is man. On average, his brain weighs from one kilogram twenty grams to one kilogram nine hundred and seventy grams.
The largest brain in humans
The weight of a person's brain depends on many factors. Firstly, the male brain is about one hundred to one hundred and fifty grams larger than the female. There are no significant differences in brain weight between individual races.
Our ancestors had much smaller brains than we do. Weight changed significantly when the first primitive man appeared. The brain of Pithecanthropus did not exceed nine hundred cubic centimeters, and the brain of Sinanthropus was about one thousand two hundred and twenty-five cubic centimeters, thus catching up with the brain of a modern woman. It is known that Cro-Magnons had a brain with a volume of one thousand eight hundred and eighty cubic centimeters.
Today the European brain is about one thousand four hundred and forty-six cubic centimeters. We can conclude that every two hundred years the brain “shrinked” by one cubic centimeter. I would like to hope that the decrease in volume does not lead to a decrease in intelligence, but is caused by an improvement in design.
It is known that Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev’s brain weight turned out to be two kilograms and twelve grams. One could consider his brain to be the largest, however, a certain individual who lived only three years had a brain weight of two kilograms and nine hundred grams.
Some celebrities just need to occupy their brains a little. According to the site, Christina Aguilera does not know where the Cannes Film Festival is taking place. .
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The human brain weighs from 1100 to 2000 grams, which is about 2% of the total body weight. At the same time, the mass of the female and male brain is different - in the stronger half, the brain is “heavier” by about 100 - 150 grams. According to scientific research, brain weight also depends on a person’s age. For example, a newborn baby has a brain mass of 455 grams. So how much does a human brain weigh? Let's try to understand this interesting question.
How much does an adult human brain weigh?
The brain is made up of many nerve cells and is one of the most important organs in the body. There is an opinion that the level of a person’s intelligence depends on the mass of his brain. However, this is nothing more than a myth - the brain of a genius may well turn out to be smaller than the brain of a person of low mental abilities. It is enough to trace the “dimensions” of the brain of many great minds of mankind. So, let's turn to statistics and compare the brain mass of such outstanding personalities as:
- Walt Whitman – 1256 g
- Lenin – 1340 g
- Stanislavsky – 1505
- Trotsky - 1568
- Mendeleev - 1571 g
- Pavlov – 1653
- Beethoven – 1750
- Yesenin – 1920
- Turgenev - 2012
- Byron – 2238 g
As we see, the presence of talent or personal gifts does not depend on the weight of the human brain. It has been proven that the level of intelligence is influenced by certain areas of the brain - the “gray matter”. And here, in turn, the density of neurons and the number of connections between them play a decisive role.
Many diseases may well provoke an enlargement of the cerebral cortex, which will affect its mass. Science has recorded the largest brain - weighing 2850 grams! True, the owner of such a “unique” was a weak-minded person.
Interesting fact: representatives of different races and nationalities have different brain masses. For example, in Belarusians the brain weight is on average 1429 grams, in Russians it is 1399 grams. If we compare the brain mass of a black American (1223 grams) and the “average” German (1425 grams), the difference between the figures will be 202 grams.
The human brain weighs from 1100 to 2000 grams.
Australians have the lightest brain – 1185 grams! The brains of Asians – Koreans and Japanese – are slightly “heavier” (1376 grams and 1313 grams, respectively).
It should be noted that the weight of the brain is not a static quantity. From birth to 27 years of age, the brain “grows” in weight, and then its mass gradually but steadily decreases. For every 10 subsequent years, a person “loses” 30 grams of brain!
How much does an elephant's brain weigh?
The average weight of an elephant's brain is from 4000 to 5000 grams. When compared with the weight of the human brain, the largest mammal has a brain that is more than twice as heavy. As has been scientifically proven, the level of intelligence does not depend on the size of the brain - otherwise, the “crown of creation” on the planet would not be humans, but elephants and whales.
The weight of an elephant's brain is from 4000 to 5000 grams.
What criterion influences the potential level of intelligence? This is the ratio of brain mass to total body weight. Observations of different species of animals have shown that animals with a higher score are able to better control their behavior. In humans, the ratio of brain weight to body weight is 1:40, but elephants cannot “boast” of such successes - in these huge mammals this figure is 1:560.
How much does a whale's brain weigh?
The weight of a whale's brain reaches 9000 grams.
The blue whale is the largest mammal that has ever existed on Earth. Indeed, the body length of a whale often exceeds 30 meters, and its weight is more than 150 tons.
The brain mass of this aquatic “record holder” reaches 9000 grams, and the ratio of this indicator to the total body weight is 1: 40,000.
How much do the brain and heart of a blue whale weigh?
An interesting fact is that the heart of a whale weighs between 600 and 700 kg, while the brain weighs on average 6.8 kg. As you can see, the whale brain is about 100 times lighter than the heart. Why does a whale have such a “big” heart? The fact is that a small heart could hardly cope with transporting blood through the vessels of such a huge multi-ton body.
The northern beluga dolphin also has a large brain weighing 2350 grams. But his “brother”, the bottlenose dolphin, has a brain mass of only 1735 grams.
The human brain is a unique creation of nature. Indeed, in the total body mass, the brain’s share is only 2%, and to remain even in a state of “rest,” the organ requires at least 9% of the energy entering the body. What can we say about the activity of thought processes! As soon as a person begins to think “intensely,” the level of energy consumption immediately increases to 25%. In addition, increased brain activity requires additional oxygen supply. So while solving logical problems or writing essays, our brain “takes” up to a third of all incoming oxygen from the body.
We now know how much the human brain weighs on its own, and also in relation to the brains of some mammals.
Brain weight normal people range from 1020 to 1970 grams. The brain of men weighs 100 - 150 grams more than the brain of women. There are no serious differences between individual races. In any case, it is not the Europeans who occupy the leading position. The average brain weight of African blacks is 1316, Europeans - 1361, including Germans - 1291, Swiss - 1327, Russians - 1377 grams. The brain weight of the Japanese is 1374, and that of the Buryats is even 1508 grams.
How can we find out how much the brain of our distant ancestors weighed? The size of the brain can be determined by the size of the skull. The largest representative of modern apes has a small brain volume - 440 - 510 cubic centimeters. During the transition from the great ape to primitive man, a significant increase in the brain occurred. In Pithecanthropus it ranged from 750 to 900, in Sinanthropus it increased to 915 - 1225 cubic centimeters, that is, it caught up with the brain of a modern woman. The volume of the African Neanderthal skull reached 1325, and the European one - 1610 cubic centimeters. Finally, the Cro-Magnons were truly brainy guys with a brain volume of up to 1880 cubic centimeters.
Then the size of the brain began to decline. Excavations in ancient Egyptian pyramids provide an opportunity to compare the size of the skulls of pharaohs over several millennia. For some 2 - 3 thousand years from the reign of the first dynasty of pharaohs to the 18th dynasty, the capacity of the skull fell from 1414 to 1379 cubic centimeters, approximately by a cubic centimeter every 200 years. And Europeans’ brains have “shrinked” significantly over the past 10 - 20 thousand years. Its volume for a modern European is on average 1446 cubic centimeters.
Maybe the ancients were smarter than us? It’s unlikely, although they should have been outstanding thinkers: after all, they had to figure everything out with their own minds. I would like to hope that the decrease in brain size is caused by improvements in its design and is not accompanied by a decrease in intelligence.
Among animals, whales have the largest brains. The blue whale weighs 6800 grams, about five times more than a human. The brain weight of the Indian elephant is about 5000, the northern beluga dolphin - 2350, the bottlenose dolphin - 1735 grams. The comparison does not seem to be in favor of the person. But it is necessary to take into account not only the weight of the brain, but also the size of the economy subordinate to it. An ordinary whale is 30 tons of fat, bones and meat. An elephant weighs about 3 thousand, a beluga whale - 300, and a person - only some 75 kilograms. In our country, 1 gram of brain commands 50 grams of body, and in an ordinary whale it commands five kilograms, almost 100 times more. If we take giant whales weighing 100 - 150 tons, which are occasionally found in the ocean, then for 1 gram of brain they will have over 20 kilograms of body - a huge load for nerve cells.
It seems that with our brain the situation could not be simpler - the more “gray matter”, the better. However, by this logic, elephants should have become the dominant species on the planet, not humans. Fortunately for us, a larger brain does not mean greater efficiency or better cognitive abilities, and sometimes even the opposite. Concepture publishes a translation of a Nautilus article in which nervous system specialist Susana Herculano-Husel talks about why our brain is the most efficient.
Brain mass and thinking
For a long time, we thought we were the height of cognitive ability among all animals. But from some rather important points of view, such a high-profile nomination is by no means synonymous with “the pinnacle of evolution.” As Mark Twain noted in 1903, to suppose that evolution is a long road leading to man as his final and highest goal would be as absurd as to think that the sole purpose of building the Eiffel Tower was to paint its top.
Moreover, evolution is not synonymous with progress, it is simply changes over time. And people are far from the “youngest”, that is, the most recently evolved species. For example, more than 500 new species of cichlids (a family of fish) have appeared in Lake Victoria (the youngest of the African great lakes) since its basin was first filled with water 14,500 years ago.
However, there is something truly unique about our brain that makes it capable of thinking even about its structure and the reasons for the hypothesis of its supremacy in relation to other types of brain. After all, it is we who study other animals, and not they us - a powerful argument in favor of the special nature of the human brain.
Brain mass comes to mind as the most obvious solution to the puzzle of which brain is best suited for advanced thinking: if it is the brain that makes consciousness and cognition possible, then the more of it you have, the more cognitive abilities you have. But here it is easy, as they say, not to notice the elephant, not only figuratively, but also literally: the elephant is a creature whose brain is larger than that of a human, but at the same time it does not demonstrate such complex and flexible behavior as we do.
In addition, by equating a large brain size with advanced cognitive abilities, we are assuming that all brains are “made” the same, that is, we are starting from a similar ratio of brain size to the number of neurons. But my colleagues and I already know that the brains of different species are “made” differently.
Primates have a clear advantage over other mammals, which arose from a confluence of evolutionary circumstances that allowed them to very “economically” increase the number of neurons in the brain without requiring the significant increase in average cell size that is observed in the case of other mammals.
"Hello Beautiful!" Since the late 1960s, psychologists have wondered whether the ability to recognize oneself in a mirror is a sign of intelligence and self-awareness.
So, in addition to differences in the brain structure of different species, scientists also know the total number of neurons in some of them, so we can associate more advanced cognitive abilities not just with the mass of the brain, which is a bit crude, but with the number of neurons in it.
In addition, this hypothesis can be tested in practice. The total number of neurons was the next best answer to the question of whether the brain is better suited for thinking, regardless of brain size. After all, if neurons are what give rise to conscious cognitive actions, then more neurons would mean more developed cognitive abilities. Is not it?
Indeed, even though scientists previously believed that cognitive differences between species were qualitative in nature, and some characteristics were generally considered the exclusive prerogative of humans, we now realize that cognitive differences between human beings and other animals lie rather in the degree of their development. In other words, we and animals have quantitative, not qualitative differences.
We've evolved an impressively sophisticated ability to use tools, we even create tools to make other tools, but... chimpanzees use branches as tools to dig for termites, monkeys learn to use rakes to get food they can't see, and crows don't just make wire tools that help them get food, but also put them aside for later use.
Alex, an African gray parrot owned by psychologist Irene Pepperberg, learned to pronounce words that symbolized objects, and chimpanzees and gorillas, although they cannot articulate sounds for anatomical reasons, learn to communicate using sign language.
Chimpanzees can learn hierarchical sequences: they play games where they have to touch squares in ascending order relative to previously shown numbers, and they perform the demands of the game as well and as quickly as highly trained humans. Chimpanzees and elephants can cooperate with each other to obtain food that is inaccessible to either of them individually. Chimpanzees, as well as other primates, demonstrate the ability to judge the mental states of others, a necessary prerequisite for the ability to deceive.
Even birds seem to have an understanding of the mental state of other individuals: for example, magpies can demonstratively hide food in the presence of strangers, and then, when the strangers leave, pull out the food and hide it somewhere else. Chimpanzees and gorillas, elephants, dolphins, and magpies all show signs of recognizing themselves in a mirror, which they use to examine a mark that researchers placed on their heads as part of an experiment.
Does the African elephant brain really have more neurons?
We've mentioned fundamental discoveries that support the cognitive abilities of species different from our own, but such single observations cannot provide the basis for the cross-species comparisons we need to make if we want to figure out what it is about our brains that allows us to perform cognitive feats not achieved by others. And here we are faced with another problem - in fact, the biggest one at this stage: how to measure cognitive abilities in many species and do it in such a way that for each of them we get comparable values.
In 2014, a study was conducted that focused on self-control (a cognitive ability that is based in the prefrontal, association part of the cerebral cortex) in several species of animals - mainly primates, but also small rodents, canine raptors, the Asian elephant and some species birds.
The results of the study showed that the value that best correlated with correct behavior during the self-control test was absolute brain volume. Except for the elephant, who, despite having the largest brain among the “participants,” was completely unable to complete the task properly.
There are many reasons for this, from “He just didn’t care about the food or the task” to “He liked to anger the researchers by refusing to complete the task.” (I like to think that the reason monkeys find it so difficult to teach actions that humans learn very quickly is because the monkeys feel insulted by the obviousness of the task: “Come on, you want me to move to do this "Give me something more difficult! Let me play a video game!")
Susana Herculano-Husel explores what exactly makes the human brain so special, allowing it to perform much more complex operations than animals demonstrate the ability to do. Photos from the TED talk.
In my view, the most interesting possibility to explain the elephant's poor performance is that the African elephant simply does not have all the prefrontal neurons in its cerebral cortex that are needed to solve a self-control task (like those it encountered in experiment).
Since we recognized that the brains of primates and rodents are "made" differently and have different numbers of neurons, even if their sizes are comparable, we made a further logical assumption that the African elephant brain, if it is built like a rodent brain, must have only 3 billion neurons in the cerebral cortex and 21 billion neurons in the cerebellum, compared to our 16 billion and 69 billion, respectively.
On the other hand, if the African elephant's brain is structured like the brain of primates, then it should contain a fabulous number of neurons: 62 billion in the cerebral cortex and 159 billion neurons in the cerebellum. But elephants, of course, are neither primates nor rodents; They belong to the superorder Afrotheria, as do a number of small animals, such as the long-eared jumper and golden mole, that have been studied previously, and as a result of these studies, scientists have concluded that their brains function very similarly to the brains of rodents.
Why spend $100,000 when a butcher knife will do?
So , Is it true that the African elephant's brain, which is more than three times heavier than ours, contains more neurons? If this turns out to be true, then my hypothesis that cognitive ability is a value derived from the number of neurons will be refuted.
But if it turns out that the human brain has significantly more neurons than the much larger African elephant brain, then this would support my assumption that the simplest explanation for the cognitive abilities of the human species is a remarkable number of neurons in the brain that is no longer observed in one species, regardless of the size of its characteristic brain. In particular, I expected that the number of neurons in the human cerebral cortex would be greater than in the African elephant cerebral cortex.
My assumption was based on the logic of cognitive science literature, which for a long time proclaimed the cerebral cortex (or, more precisely, the prefrontal part of the cerebral cortex) as the sole “residence” of consciousness, and therefore: abstract thinking, complex decision-making and planning of future actions.
However, virtually the entire cerebral cortex is connected to the cerebellum by communication loops that connect the information processing “devices” of the cortex and cerebellum to each other, and more and more research has suggested that the cerebellum is involved in the cerebral cortex's cognitive function. Thus, we can say that these structures work in tandem. And since these structures together have the largest number of neurons in the brain, cognitive abilities should correlate equally well with the number of neurons in the whole brain, as well as in the cerebral cortex and cerebellum.
A gallon of brain soup
The hemisphere of an African elephant's brain weighs 2.5 kilograms and this meant that it would have to be cut into hundreds of small pieces to process and count neurons, since turning the brain into soup to determine the number of neurons can only be done with pieces of tissue no larger than 3-5 grams each . I wanted the cuts to be made systematically, and not as God dictated. The question arose about the most suitable tool.
Susana Herculo-Husel has developed her own method for counting the number of neurons in nervous tissue: for this, a fragment of the brain is exposed to a solvent that dissolves the cell membranes but leaves the nuclei intact. It turns out to be a kind of “soup”. The convenience of counting kernels in it is ensured by the fact that if you shake it well, the kernels will be distributed almost evenly in it. After this, it will be possible to count the number of neuron nuclei in 4-5 drops and extrapolate the result to the entire volume - approx. lane based on materialsTED.
We have used a conventional cutter to obtain a series of thin sections from the hemisphere of the human brain for research. The cutter was convenient for separating the cortical gyri, but it had one significant drawback: too much brain matter remained on the disk-shaped knife, which made it difficult to determine the exact number of cells in the hemisphere. If we wanted to know the total number of neurons in an elephant's brain, we needed to cut it by hand into thicker pieces to minimize the inevitable loss to the point of negligibility.
One fine morning, my daughter and I (school holidays had just started) went to the hardware store in search of an L-shaped bracket that would serve as a stable, flat, regular frame for cutting the brain of an elephant, as well as the longest knife we could find. hold in one hand.
It was an adventure that a teenager couldn't miss, because years later he would be able to say, “Hey Mom, remember when we cut up elephant brains?” Having bought everything we needed and brought it home safely, we got to work: first we sawed off the structural reinforcement from the L-shaped bracket, then placed the elephant's brain in it. Of course, there are machines that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars that would do this job in the most perfect way, but why spend so much money when a regular hand-held butcher knife will do the job?
I laid the hemisphere flat on the work surface and positioned it between the two bracket supports. One of the students held the supports in place while I held the hemisphere with my left hand and cut it firmly but carefully. A few cuts later, we had in our hands a completely cut and ready-to-process elephant brain: 16 sections through the cerebral cortex, eight through the cerebellum, as well as an entire brain stem and a huge olfactory bulb weighing 20 grams (10 times heavier than a rat brain), all it was laid out separately.
Neuron counting. Susana Herculano-Husel and her students sliced the elephant brain shown in this photo to determine the number of neurons it contains and compare it to that of the human brain.
This was the largest amount of fabric we had ever processed. One person, processing one fragment a day, would spend a whole year analyzing such a volume, and working seven days a week. It was obvious that group work was needed, especially since I wanted results within six months. But even with a small army of assistants, consisting of students, the work took a very long time: two months passed, and we processed only one tenth of the elephant’s brain hemisphere. Something had to be invented.
Next, we needed to separate the internal structures (striatum, thalamus, hippocampus) from the cortex, then cut the cortex into smaller pieces for processing, and then separate each of those pieces into gray and white matter. In general, we ended up with 381 pieces of fabric, most of which weighed several times more than 5 grams, which is how much can be processed at a time.
The principles of capitalism came in handy. I did some calculations and found that I had $2,500 “extra”—roughly one dollar per gram of tissue to be processed. I gathered a team and made them an offer: anyone can help with the work and at the same time receive a financial reward for it. Small partnerships quickly formed: one student shredded the fabric, another did the counting, and both split the income. The work went as if by magic.
My husband, coming to the laboratory, was amazed by the friendly crowd of students, animatedly talking with each other and at the same time working diligently (mostly the students worked in shifts, since the laboratory was quite small). Jairo Porfirio took on a huge amount of the antibody staining work, and I did the microscopic neuron counting, and in just six months we had processed the entire hemisphere of the African elephant brain - just as planned.
And the winner...
Listen! The African elephant brain has more neurons than the human brain. And not just a little more: three times more - 257 billion versus our 86 billion. But - and this is a really big but - 98 percent of these neurons were located in the cerebellum, at the back of the brain. In every other mammal we have studied, the cerebellum also contained the majority of neurons, but never more than 80 percent.
The extraordinary distribution of neurons in the African elephant brain left the cerebral cortex with some 5.6 billion neurons. Despite the size of the African elephant's cerebral cortex, its 5.6 billion neurons pale in comparison to the average 16 billion neurons concentrated in the much smaller human cerebral cortex.
So, we have the answer we were looking for: no, the human brain does not contain more neurons than the much larger elephant brain, but the human cerebral cortex has three times as many neurons as the larger elephant cerebral cortex. Obviously, the huge number of neurons in the elephant's brain does not help it in the development of cognitive abilities. This gives us the right to say that the number of neurons in the cerebellum is not a decisive factor in determining the best suitability of the brain for thinking .
It turns out that only the cerebral cortex remains. Nature performed the experiment we needed, proving that there is no connection between the number of neurons in the cerebral cortex and the number of neurons in the cerebellum. Humans' superior cognitive abilities can be explained (and this is the only explanation) simply by the impressively large number of neurons in our cerebral cortex.
Although we currently do not have the cognitive ability measurements needed to compare all mammalian species, or even those for which we know the number of neurons in their cerebral cortex, we can already make testable assumptions based on these numbers. If the absolute number of neurons in the cerebral cortex is the main limiting factor in the development of cognitive abilities of a species, then I suggest that the classification according to this indicator should look like this:
And this seems more plausible than the current classification by brain mass, which places, for example, the giraffe above primates. In this interpretation, the hierarchy looks like this:
It turns out that there is a simple explanation for why the human brain, and only it, can be at the same time so similar to the brains of other species in its evolutionary limitations, and so different from them, giving us the ability to speculate about our own material and metaphysical origins.
First, we are primates, which gives us the advantage of having a large number of neurons packed into a small cerebral cortex. And secondly, thanks to the technological innovations introduced by our ancestors, we have avoided the energy restrictions that are responsible for the fact that other animals have fewer neurons in the cerebral cortex (after all, this is the only number they can “afford” on a strict diet in the wild). nature).
What, in the end, do we have that other animals don’t? I claim that this is a huge number of neurons in the cerebral cortex, the largest of any species known today. So what are we doing that no other animal does that has allowed us to gather so many neurons in one place?
The answer, it seems to me, is very simple: we cook our own food. That is, we are able to provide our brain with the nutrition necessary for its development, which cannot be said about animals in the wild. And our brain consumes a lot of energy (about 25% of all the energy we receive from food). Thus, by simplifying the process of obtaining food and making it more balanced and nutritious, man contributed to the development of his brain, and the brain, in turn, contributed to the development of human society.
About the author: Susana Herculano-Huzel is a nervous system specialist from Brazil. She is Associate Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Comparative Anatomy at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of the Federal Institute of Rio de Janeiro.
10
10th place - New convolutions
There is a myth that when learning something new, a person develops new convolutions. In fact, a person is not born with convolutions; at the beginning of development, the fetus has a smooth small brain. As neurons grow, they also grow and migrate to different areas of the brain, creating grooves and ridges. By 40 weeks, the brain is almost as convoluted as an adult's. That is, as we learn, new reliefs do not appear; we are simply born with them.
However, as learning progresses, the brain actually changes - brain plasticity is responsible for this, but still no new convolutions appear.
9
9th place - The human brain is the largest
In proportion to the entire body, the human brain is indeed quite large, but a common misconception is that the human brain is larger than that of any other creature.
The adult human brain weighs approximately 1.3 kg and reaches 15 cm in length. The largest brain belongs to the sperm whale; it weighs more than 8 kg. Another animal with a large brain is the elephant, whose brain weighs about 5 kg.
Many people will ask, what about the brain-to-body ratio? However, people are inferior in this too. In a shrew, the weight of its brain is 10% of the total mass.
8
8th place - The level of intelligence depends on the size of the brain
As practice has shown, brain size does not affect the level of intelligence. For example, the brain of I.S. Turgenev weighed 2012 g, and Anatole France's brain weighed 1017 g. The heaviest brain - 2850 g - was found in an individual who suffered from epilepsy and idiocy. His brain was functionally defective. So, there is no direct relationship between brain mass and the mental abilities of an individual.
7
7th place - The older a person is, the weaker his memory
In fact, in most cases we observe exactly this picture - in older people, the thinking process slows down, memory deteriorates, in some cases accompanied by senile insanity.
However, it is not age that is to blame, but the lifestyle that each individual person led and leads. Some people retained their thinking clearly into old age. Of course, for this, desire alone is not enough - it is necessary to observe a certain regime of work, rest and nutrition. It is advisable to eat healthy foods, including fish, fresh fruits and vegetables. Mental exercises also keep your thinking clear.
6
6th place - The brain works like a computer
It is a myth. In fact, if we look at how modern computers work and how the brain works, we see that the differences between them are fundamental. In a computer, a program stored in memory is executed by the processor, thus keeping memory and computation separate. In the brain, this division is absent; in fact, memory and calculation are combined with each other due to the fact that memory is stored in the structure of connections between nerve cells, which perform calculations.
5
5th place - Alcohol kills brain cells
Alcoholism, of course, can lead to serious health problems, but experts do not believe that alcohol causes the death of neurons. In fact, studies have shown that even chronic drinking does not kill neurons.
4
4th place - Brain damage turns a person into a vegetable
It is not always so. There are different types of brain damage, and their impact on a person depends largely on where they are located and how severe they are. Mild brain injuries, such as concussions, are caused by the brain moving inside the skull, causing bleeding and rupture. The brain recovers surprisingly well from minor injuries, and the vast majority of people who experience mild brain injury do not become disabled for life.
3
3rd place - Brain hemispheres
The left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for rationality, and the right hemisphere for creativity. This is only partly true. A study of gifted schoolchildren, winners of high-level mathematical Olympiads, showed that among them there were clearly right-handers, left-handers, and ambidexters (people with the same manual dexterity), that is, these schoolchildren had a slightly different distribution of functions across the hemispheres.
2
2nd place - The brain is gray matter
Many of us have heard that the cells of the cerebral cortex are gray, and this statement is not subject to any doubt. However, only the cells of the dead brain that have left the host’s body are gray. The natural color of a living brain is red. By the way, brain tissue resembles the structure of ordinary soft jelly.
1
1st place - The myth about the 10% of the brain that is used
It is a myth that most people use no more than 10% of their brain. Neuroscientist Barry Gordon characterizes the myth as "ridiculously wrong," adding: "We use virtually every part of the brain, and it's active almost all the time."
Research shows that each part of the human brain has its own specific set of functions. If the 10% myth was true, then the chance of brain damage would be much less - we would only have to worry about keeping the little 10% of our brain safe. But in reality, even damage to a very small area of the brain can have serious consequences for our functioning. Brain scans also showed that there is a certain level of activity throughout the brain, even during sleep.
“Let the horse think, he has a bigger head!” - familiar phrase?
And everything seems to be logical - the larger the brain, the smarter its lucky owner. And there are plenty of examples of this: all sorts of bugs and cockroaches with a brain of a few milligrams, mice, squirrels and titmice with a brain weighing only about 1 gram, and then cats (about 30 grams), dogs (about 100 grams) and apes with brain weighing about 400 grams. - well, they just can’t compete with smart people like you and me, who have, on average, 1400 grams of gray matter. So far, everything seems to be correct.
Well, then complete confusion begins: leaving out all sorts of horses and cows with a brain weight of 300-400 grams, an elephant has a brain weight of more than 5 kg, and sperm whales generally have more than 7 kg! Wow! So this is who they are - the smartest and wisest! No!
It turns out that intelligence depends not so much on the size and weight of the brain, but on the ratio of its weight to the total weight of the whole body. And here man has no equal!
Well, for example: In humans, the ratio of body weight to brain weight is:…. So…. 70 kg divided by 1.4 kg...so.... yeah - 50 times. But in a cow - 1000 times, in a dog - 500 times, in a chimpanzee - 120 times. Well, if you count the “clever” whales and sperm whales, it turns out that their body weight exceeds the weight of their brain by as much as 3000 times!
In general, our only and closest “intelligence” relatives are dolphins, the brain weight of some species of which reaches 1700 grams, with a body weight of about 135 kg.
But I wonder if there is a difference in the weight of the brain, so to speak, within the human race? It turns out yes, it exists!
Let's continue.
In general, our brain is a rather energy-intensive and energy-consuming thing. For example, a “resting” brain consumes 9% of the body’s total energy and 20% of oxygen, while a “working” brain, that is, a thinking brain, consumes about 25% of all nutrients entering the body and approximately 33% of the oxygen the body needs. In general, it turns out that thinking is not very profitable! And even the question arises: why do we need such a large and “voracious” brain?
It turns out that, both in the animal world and in the human world, for survival, in addition to saving energy, another factor is very important - reaction time. And this is where our big brain comes in handy! A person uses it essentially as a large and powerful computer, which turns on when it is necessary to sharply speed up the solution of complex problems that require enormous stress and quick reaction. That’s why, although our brain is insanely gluttonous, it is very necessary and irreplaceable.
So how does this “computer” work?
Origin of the brain Savelyev Sergey Vyacheslavovich
§ 4. Ratio of brain and body mass
The brain of proto-aquatic vertebrates (cyclostomes, cartilaginous and bony fish), amphibians and reptiles makes up approximately 1/10-1/40 of the mass of the entire nervous system. This proportion depends significantly on the body size of the animal. If the animal is large, then the mass of the peripheral nervous system, which includes nerves and ganglia, can be more than 10 times the size of the brain and spinal cord combined. Apparently, in extinct large dinosaurs, the size of the brain was extremely small compared to that of the peripheral nervous system and could have constituted its 30th or even 50th part. In birds and mammals the situation is somewhat different. In birds, the brain and spinal cord usually make up 1/2-1/5 of the mass of the entire nervous system. There are also exceptions. In small birds the proportion is disturbed, since the brain has a huge relative mass, and the body weighs only a few grams.
| Brain/body | |
|---|---|
| Hummingbird | 1/12 |
| Mouse | 1/26 |
| Rat | 1/28 |
| Mole | 1/34 |
| Squirrel | 1/36 |
| Bat | 1/40 |
| Sloth | 1/100 |
| Gorilla | 1/100 |
| Pigeon | 1/100 |
| Bee | 1/130 |
| bottlenose dolphin | 1/140 |
| Deer | 1/150 |
| Eagle (cemetery) | 1/160 |
| Jackal | 1/200 |
| Dog | 1/250 |
| Rabbit | 1/300 |
| Single wasp | 1/300 |
| Sheep | 1/350 |
| Horse | 1/400 |
| Tapir | 1/500 |
| Elephant | 1/500 |
| Frog | 1/750 |
| Ostrich | 1/800 |
| Walrus | 1/850 |
| a lion | 1/1000 |
| Tiger | 1/1200 |
| Hippopotamus | 1/1500 |
| Giraffe | 1/1700 |
| Sperm whale | 1/3500 |
| Swimming beetle | 1/4000 |
| Fin whale | 1/10000 |
| Blue whale | 1/20000 |
Rice. I-7. Comparative sizes of the spinal cord and brain in animals of different groups.
The brain and spinal cord are almost equal in mass in the frog (a); in the green monkey and marmoset, the mass of the brain is much greater than the mass of the spinal cord (6, c). The spinal cord of a snake is many times larger in size and weight than the brain (g).
One of the record holders in this area is the hummingbird. The brain mass of a hummingbird is 1/12 of its body mass. For birds and mammals, this is a record ratio, since it is higher only in a newborn child (1/7), but a newborn cannot survive on its own. The hummingbird is considered the animal with the largest relative brain mass (see Figure I-6). However, these schemes do not take into account the mass of the peripheral nervous system and its role in metabolism. If we add to the hummingbird's brain the mass of its peripheral nervous system, then the overall ratio nervous system/body will become 1/6.
It is interesting to note that in many invertebrate animals the ratio of brain mass to body mass is not much different from that of warm-blooded vertebrates. If we take the cephalic ganglia with the neurohemal organ to be the brain of arthropods, then its mass may be the envy of many vertebrates. Thus, the worker bee has the attitude cephalic ganglion mass/body mass will be 1/130, for an ant - 1/140, for a single wasp - 1/300, for a cockchafer and swimming beetle - 1/4000. In other words, the cephalic ganglia of a bee and an ant are comparable in relative size to the brain of a deer, and a solitary wasp is comparable to the brain of a lion. At the same time, the mass of the trunk ganglia of invertebrates almost always exceeds the mass of the brain. If we take into account their size, the proportion of nervous system mass/body mass will take on a very unexpected form - it will reach the level of higher mammals. For bees, ants, a single wasp, a chafer and a diving beetle, it will be 1/40.1/45.1/100 and 1/1200, respectively. Comparing these relationships with similar ones in primates, we get an unpleasant “pattern”: swimming beetles and great apes are united in a common “cerebral index,” which emphasizes the dubious value of this parameter for assessing intelligence. Mass relations between the body and the brain only indirectly reflect the main trends in the evolution of the brain.
In mammals, the ratio of brain mass to the mass of the peripheral nervous system has a number of features. The brain and spinal cord in this group may exceed the mass of the rest of the nervous system. In this case the relation can vary from 3/1 to 1/5. The reasons for such fluctuations lie in the size of the body and brain of mammals. Shrews have a small body weight and a small peripheral nervous system, the ratio brain/peripheral nervous system they will have about 3/2. However, the shrews' brains are very large relative to their body weight, which fundamentally changes the appearance of the proportion. General attitude nervous system/body taking into account the peripheral nervous system will become approximately 1/7.
The situation is completely different in large mammals. Proboscideans and cetaceans have huge brains (see Figure I-6) and enormous body mass. To serve such a large body, extremely developed peripheral innervation is required. Approximate ratio brain/peripheral nervous system approaches 1/2. This means that in a fin whale the total mass of the nervous system can exceed 20 kg. To estimate the actual size of the entire nervous system, it is necessary to take into account several parameters simultaneously. The first parameter is the absolute mass of the brain, the second is the mass of the peripheral nervous system, and the third is the body mass of the animal. Only taking into account all the listed parameters will give the real share of energy costs for maintaining the brain. The brain mass of various animals is presented in table. 1.
From the table 1 shows that the mammalian brain can vary in mass by a factor of 10,000. This diversity corresponds to the diversity of animal sizes. However, each species is very heterogeneous. It consists of subspecies and breeds that have significant differences in both body size and brain volume.
Table 1. Absolute brain mass in animals of different species
| View | Weight, g |
|---|---|
| Midwife Toad (A. obstetricans) | 0,04 |
| Common toad (c. vulgaris) | 0,07 |
| Common viper ( V. berus) | 0,10 |
| Pipa (P. pipiens) | 0,12 |
| Green lizard (L. viridis) | 0,12 |
| Green frog (R. viriscens) | 0,15 |
| Field mouse (M. agrarius) | 0,20 |
| Bullfrog (R. catesbeiana) | 0,25 |
| Water turtle (?. orbicularis) | 0,25 |
| brown frog (R. chensinensis) | 0,27 |
| Common gecko (G. gekko) | 0,27 |
| Iguana ( I. iguana) | 1,44 |
| Gray rat ( R. rattus) | 1,60 |
| Rat Pasyuk (R. norvegicus) | 2,30 |
| Guinea pig (S. cobaya) | 4,70 |
| Columns (M. arctica) | 5,00 |
| Alligator (A. mississippiensis) | 8,00 |
Continuation of Table 1
| View | Weight, g |
|---|---|
| Rabbit (O. cuniculus) | 9,30 |
| Slow loris (N. tardigradus) | 12,00 |
| Brown hare (L. europaeus) | 15,30 |
| Crocodile (S. americanus) | 15,60 |
| Domestic cat (F. domesticus) | 25,00 |
| Lemur (L. brunnus) | 26,00 |
| Jackal (T. mesomelas) | 45,00 |
| Common dog (C. familiaris) | 65,00 |
| Red lynx (L. rufus) | 65,00 |
| Rhesus monkey (M. rhesus) | 80,00 |
| Mangabey (C. fuliginosis) | 100,00 |
| Wolf (S. lupus) | 120,00 |
| Sphinx baboon (P. sphinx) | 135,00 |
| Ram (O. aries) | 140,00 |
| Tapir (T. americanus) | 170,00 |
| Hamadryad (P. hamadryas) | 200,00 |
| Grizzly bear (U. horribilis) | 230,00 |
| a lion (R. leo) | 240,00 |
| Tiger (P. tigris) | 270,00 |
| Chimpanzee (primates) (P. troglodytes) | 355,00 |
| Orangutan (P. pygmaeus) | 370,00 |
| Donkey (E. asinus) | 385,00 |
| Bull (B. taurus) | 490,00 |
| Horse (E.caballus) | 530,00 |
| Hippopotamus (H. amphibius) | 580,00 |
| Giraffe (G. camelopardalis) | 680,00 |
| Camel (S. dromedarius) | 760,00 |
| Gorilla (G. gorilla) | 940,00 |
| Walrus (O. rosmarus) | 1120,00 |
| Human (H. sapiens) | 1350,00 |
| Harbour porpoise (R. phocaena) | 1550,00 |
| Belukha (D. leucas) | 2350,00 |
| Indian elephant (E. indicus) | 4700,00 |
| Blue whale (B. musculus) | 6800,00 |
| Fin whale (B. physalus) | 7200,00 |
| Sperm whale (P. catodon) | 9200,00 |
Dogs are an example of such differences. Their brains can vary in mass several times. The smallest dog brain mass that was described in the literature was 41.5 g, and the largest was 212 g (Petropavlovsky, 1904). Table 2 explains intraspecific variation in the dog brain.
Table 2. Average values of brain mass of purebred and outbred dogs
The percentage ratio of brain mass to body mass is indicative. The minimum ratio of 0.2 was found in large dogs whose body weight is 28–44 kg. For individuals weighing less than 2.5 kg it increases to 2.9. Consequently, the mass of the brain relative to a unit of body mass decreases in accordance with the increase in the size of the animal. However, in puppies and adult dogs of the same breed, the ratio of brain mass to body mass is almost the same. This distinguishes the individual development of dogs from the development of the brain of monkeys and humans. In monkeys and humans, the fetus is born with a large brain and small body weight, and then the body weight increases much faster than the brain. The brain is subject to sexual dimorphism. Females usually have 10–12 g smaller brains than males. Bitches are generally smaller than males and their relative brain mass is greater.
The differences in this regard between purebred and mongrel dogs are very interesting. The average brain mass in samples of outbred dogs ranges from 42 to 118 g, and in purebred dogs - from 41.5 to 212 g. Pedigree animals have a greater amplitude of brain variability than outbred ones. Apparently, the wild dog Dingo in Australia has a brain that is even more homogeneous in mass than that of mongrel city dogs. Returning to natural forms reduces artificially created diversity. It should be noted that in purebred dogs, the relative brain mass is almost 2 times less than in purebred dogs.
There is individual variability in brain size among different species in nature. In special studies on 25 brown hares (Lepus europaeus), conducted in Poland, showed significant variability in the brain. With an average brain mass of 15.3 g, individuals with brains weighing 12 and 17 g were found. Variations in brain mass are known among primates, carnivores, ungulates and marsupials; they usually do not exceed 2024%. Similar variability was found in the brain mass of birds that live in Europe and America (Lefebvre ef al., 1997).
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From the book The First Settlers of Sushi author Akimushkin Igor Ivanovich2. TABOO ON TREATING PETS SERIOUSLY The status of pets itself is an extremely common and, as a rule, unconscious taboo. The essence of this taboo lies in the fact that a person’s attachment to his pet
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From the book The Eye and the Sun author Vavilov Sergey IvanovichHow to determine the optimal (insufficient, excessive) mass of your weight? To determine normal body weight, they usually use the formula proposed back in the 19th century by the famous French anthropologist Paul Broca (1824–1880): ideal weight in kilograms equals height
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Substances for an intellectual level? How different is the brain weight of a child and an adult? Does it shrink in size as we age? There are a lot of questions...
So how much does the center of human mental activity weigh?
So, in order. How much does the average human brain weigh? According to scientific research, the weight of the organ of the central nervous system, consisting of a large number of nerve cells, ranges from 1.1 to 2.0 kg (otherwise, 2% of the total
In males, the mass of gray matter is approximately 100-130 grams greater than in females.
Is intelligence proportional to weight?
How much does an adult human brain weigh? For a man, the average is 1424 grams. The record weight was recorded by I. S. Turgenev - 2012. For comparison: the weight of Ludwig van Beethoven's brain was 1750, V. I. Lenin - 1340, Sergei Yesenin - 1920, D. I. Mendeleev - 1571 These indicators refute the theory that the level of intelligence is influenced by the weight of the gray matter. The brain of a genius can be an order of magnitude smaller than the brain of a person deprived of broad mental abilities. It has been scientifically proven: the level of intelligence is influenced by certain areas of a given organ of the nervous system, in which the frequency of neurons and quantitative connections between them play a key role. As a striking example, the largest brain weighing 2850 grams belonged to a feeble-minded person.
How much does a modern human brain weigh? occupying almost the entire cavity of the cerebral part of the skull and taking its shape in the process of growth and development, evolves: in the 19th century, its average weight in men was 1372 grams, which is significantly less than modern values. For representatives of the fair sex, the largest indicator is the weight of 1565 grams, the smallest is 1096 grams (recorded in a 31-year-old lady). It was a woman, or rather a 10-year-old girl, Marilyn Vos Savant, a resident of Missouri (USA), who in 1956 managed to pass the most difficult test with a result of 228, which was a kind of pass to the Mega Society, uniting people with the highest IQ scores.
Is brain weight proportional to age?
Gray matter mass also depends on a person's age. In a newborn child, this figure averages 455 grams. How much does an adult weigh? The human brain is not a constant.
From birth to age 27, gray matter “grows” and then begins to decrease. Every 10 years its mass decreases by 30 grams. By the way, with old age the speed of signals from the nervous system also decreases. From an average of 288 km/h it decreases by 15%.
Efficiency of using the brain in mental activity
How much a human brain weighs seems clear. The question arises: is this substance used to the maximum? There is an opinion that in life a person uses only 10% of his brain. Is it so? This opinion is controversial, but most scientists tend to conclude that it uses its full potential. To perform even the simplest task, the gray matter is activated in all its departments.
As soon as a person begins to think intensely, the amount of energy consumed by the body reaches 25%, while at rest the gray matter requires no more than 9% of energy. Activating brain activity requires additional oxygen supply, which forces the brain to take almost a third of it from the body.
Keep your brain fit
Regular exercise helps keep your brain in shape by increasing capillaries. And this, in turn, ensures maximum supply of oxygen and glucose to the body. The most effective exercises are those that last at least 30 minutes a day.
The most effective method of developing the brain is considered to be engaging in new, hitherto unfamiliar activities, as well as communicating with people who are superior in intelligence to the interlocutor. The more educated a person is, the less likely it is for brain diseases to occur, because mental activity causes the production of additional tissue that replaces the damaged one.
A little about the brains of other living organisms
How much the human brain weighs became clear from what was written above. What is the weight of, for example, an elephant?
Compared to humans, the brains of representatives of the largest mammals on the planet are 2 times larger and weigh from 4 to 5 kg. This once again confirms the theory that the level of intelligence and the weight of gray matter are in different planes.
The largest animal belonging to the class of mammals is considered to be. Its average weight is 150 tons and its length is 30 meters. The weight of the brain is 9 kg with its ratio to body weight: 1 to 40,000.
But the long-extinct dinosaurs, which reached 9 meters in height, had a brain the size of a walnut and weighed only 70 grams.