Assuming most creatures consciously use 10% or so of their brain for conscious thinking and decision making. And assuming most creatures take in & store all sensory information throughout the lifespan for future survival depending on the creatures. Also assuming nature doesn't waste space and the brain uses a lot of energy. Doesn't it just make more sense that brain size has more to do with life length and storage space than intelligence or capabilities? It's been bothering me for decades watching science programs, when the scientists and researchers are always so amazed when they find some animal or past humanoid with a small/er brain can do things. Are we that narcissistic that we think we are the only intelligent animal on this planet just because we are more complicated and destructive @ times? Thnk you so much. Really been bothering me a long time.
Does it make more sense that a brain size would have more to do with life length than intelligence?
- Posted:
- 3+ months ago by LuvSci
- Topics:
- nature, brain, science, animals, biology, anthropology, neuroscience, intelligence
Responses (2)
using 10% of our brain is just a myth, the brain is always active it's just that the work is scattered around the brain, and if you could imagine an active brain and the activity as flashes of light then you would see that the brain as a storm with lightning all over it
this is just an analogy to understand, the way scientists knew this is by monitoring the electrical currents that are in the the brain. the brain has an efficient way of working which is distributing the workaround the brain and only activate the areas that are being used.
and about brain size, intelligence and lifespan, brain size doesn't determine intelligence levels , number of neurons does , homo sapiens (us) are the most intelligent species in this planet, as we have more than 100 billion neurons in our brains and most importantly the energy to back it up, you see apes have around 60 billion neurons but don't have the energy to use it like we do, and from where do we get this energy from? FOOD , especially cooked food, around a 100.000 years ago homo sapiens split from apes and became us the most likely reason to how we split from apes is the discovery of fire with it we cooked food and were able to get the most of the nutrients in the foods we ate thus enabling us to power more neurons witch lead us to where we are now.
and about lifespan the brain has nothing to do with it , in every nucleus of every cell of the 37 trillion cells in our body , there are things called chromosomes witch are made of DNA , a chromosom is kinda X shaped , and at the very tip of these cells there are things called 'telomeres' , "A telomere is a region of 'repetitive nucleotide sequences' (DNA) at each end of a chromosome, which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration or from fusion with neighboring chromosomes". as we age this region shortens and weakens , providing less protection from deterioration, or/and eventually die.
so that's it , hope you understood and i hope i could be of help.
Completely agree. I've just never thought we give creatures the credit of "conscious thought" or problem solving they deserve. And now decades later after doing actual research they're findind this out. We always had a saying to never assume it makes an ASS out of U & ME. (it's also a way 2 help remember how to spell it [b4 spell check]).
Yes. That's very helpful and makes much more sense now. Thank you so much for your time and thoughts.