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From: palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Why are Humans as Smart as They Are?
Message-ID: <3835@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: Sun, 30-Aug-87 19:10:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: cit-vax.3835
Posted: Sun Aug 30 19:10:09 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 31-Aug-87 03:44:12 EDT
References: <1041@ttidca.TTI.COM> <2851@phri.UUCP> <2172@xanth.UUCP> <2346@calmasd.GE.COM>
Sender: news@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu
Reply-To: palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (David Palmer)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
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Keywords: high foreheads

In article <2346@calmasd.GE.COM> jnp@calmasd.GE.COM (John Pantone) writes:
>Only one problem, Kent.  High, clear foreheads don't indicate (necessarily)
>a large cranial capacity (could have a small hind-head) nor does large
>cranial capacity indicate high intelligence.  Some species of Dolphin,
>almost all whales and elephants have brains physically larger than ours -
>yet it is not true that they have greater intelligence.
>
>The "classic" anecdote on this subject is the one regarding the largest
>brain (human) recorded - which belonged to a mentally deficient man.

There are also poeple with hollow brains, hydrocephalics whose brain is
just a thin veneer over a bubble of cerebro-spinal fluid.  Many of these
people are normal or above normal in intelligence, even though they have
only 5% (!!!) of the normal brain mass.

Are there any theories out there about why the rest of us need so much
brain when these people get by with so little? is it just because of the
advantages that redundancy gives us?


		David Palmer
		palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu
		...rutgers!cit-vax!tybalt.caltech.edu!palmer
	The opinions expressed are those of an 8000 year old Atlantuan
	priestess named Mrla, and not necessarily those of her channel.