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Compare Brains

Compare Brain and Body Sizes

Compare Brain Structures- Slices and Slides

The Neuron- Up Close and Personal

The Question of Intelligence

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Brain is Bigger image

(image thanks to soton.ac.uk/~jrc3/chudler/brainsize.html)

Why do we care about all this comparative neuroanatomy?

Many people are interested in the relationship between body size and brain size. One may expect larger animals to have larger brains, but we want to know more about the relationship for two main reasons:

  • First, knowing something about the general relationship may help us learn something interesting about brains, cognition, and intelligence in general;
  • Second, if there is a general relationship between body and brain size, then we need to factor it out when talking about brain size and intelligence (or cognition)... For example, cows have bigger brains than most monkeys, but that most likely has more to do with the having larger bodies than large cow intelligence.

There are multiple methods for studying the brain and its relationship to behavioral complexity (hey-- what is the difference between intelligence and behavioral complexity???). Let's take an indepth look at these methods, which include:

First, though, have you thought about what intelligence is anyway? How do scientists talk about it? Go here for a discussion of the relevence of intelligence or click on a button below . . .

Continue this discussion about intelligence and brain size

Huh? Can we start over?