THE SIZE OF THE BRAIN

A group of anthropologists has been sustaining that the size of the brain is a human characteristic and that the great primates, because of the size of their brains, can not be considered humans. In a recent work published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scientist Márcia Ponce de León, from Zurich University, concluded, after the analysis of baby and adults Neanderthal fossils, that their brain used to grow faster than the Homo sapiens\’, but this does not mean that they were more intelligent.

Primitive and modern Homo sapiens\’ brains indicate that they have been getting smaller.  Even though, the modern human, with a smaller brain, has developed high levels of reasoning and intelligence abilities, which justifies all the technological breakthroughs of the modern society.

One of the ways to explain that the decreasing of the size of the brain is accompanied by a growth in the ability to develop knowledge and technology is the "laptop strategy", the one that "adopts smaller, but more efficient brains", like the small cars\’ engines, more efficient and powerful.

 To sum it up, another myth falls apart in front of the people who formulate anthropological theories with the intention of separate chimpanzees from Homo sapiens for the size of their brains. Science now proved that size does not matter…

Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian
GAP Project International