Traniello said the inspiration for applying this idea to why human brains may have shrunk came from “ultrasocial" insects such as ants. DeSilva’s group calculated that human brains had remained roughly the same size in average volume, about 1,450 cubic centimeters, for roughly the past 150,000 years. View Full Image DeSilva and his colleagues suggest human brains may have recently evolved to be more optimized. How well our neurons pass along information between themselves and the complexity of those neural networks—essentially, how robust your gray matter is—are more important than brain size, according to scientists. He said that a limited sample size—particularly of fossil skulls—may have skewed calculations with regards to brain size averages over time.

Source: Wall Street Journal September 09, 2023 10:53 UTC