The development of bigger brains has long been considered a hallmark of our species’ increased intelligence and subsequent dominance on this planet. The last two million years of our evolution were marked by a nearly fourfold increase in brain volume.
But a growing body of evidence suggests our brains recently changed in an unexpected way: They diminished in size sometime following the end of the last Ice Age.
“Most people think of brain evolution happening in this linear way. It grows, plateaus and stops,” said Jeremy DeSilva, a professor of paleoanthropology at Dartmouth College. “But we’ve lost brain tissue equal to the volume of a lime—it isn’t a tiny little sliver we’re talking about.”
Many anthropologists had initially posited the changes coincided with the advent of agricultural practices around 10,000 years ago, and a global shift away from hunting and gathering.
The more-recent dates from DeSilva’s group point to booming eras for ancient civilizations in North Africa, the Middle East and South America—complex societies that they think may have played a role in the shrinkage.
Researchers suggested that perhaps our need to maintain a large brain—to keep track of information about food, social relationships, predators and our environment—has also relaxed in the past few millennia because we could store information externally in other members of our social circles, towns and groups.
“We’re so social that we don’t have to know everything anymore,” DeSilva said. “And we collectively then operate as a pretty functional society.”
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. That average rapidly dropped by around 10%, or up to 150 cubic centimeters, over the course of the last few millennia.
Read more at the link in our bio.
But a growing body of evidence suggests our brains recently changed in an unexpected way: They diminished in size sometime following the end of the last Ice Age.
“Most people think of brain evolution happening in this linear way. It grows, plateaus and stops,” said Jeremy DeSilva, a professor of paleoanthropology at Dartmouth College. “But we’ve lost brain tissue equal to the volume of a lime—it isn’t a tiny little sliver we’re talking about.”
Many anthropologists had initially posited the changes coincided with the advent of agricultural practices around 10,000 years ago, and a global shift away from hunting and gathering.
The more-recent dates from DeSilva’s group point to booming eras for ancient civilizations in North Africa, the Middle East and South America—complex societies that they think may have played a role in the shrinkage.
Researchers suggested that perhaps our need to maintain a large brain—to keep track of information about food, social relationships, predators and our environment—has also relaxed in the past few millennia because we could store information externally in other members of our social circles, towns and groups.
“We’re so social that we don’t have to know everything anymore,” DeSilva said. “And we collectively then operate as a pretty functional society.”
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. That average rapidly dropped by around 10%, or up to 150 cubic centimeters, over the course of the last few millennia.
Read more at the link in our bio.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CxLuZO1tV5T/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng%3D%3D
The development of bigger brains has long been considered a hallmark of our species’ increased intelligence and subsequent dominance on this planet. The last two million years of our evolution were marked by a nearly fourfold increase in brain volume.
But a growing body of evidence suggests our brains recently changed in an unexpected way: They diminished in size sometime following the end of the last Ice Age.
“Most people think of brain evolution happening in this linear way. It grows, plateaus and stops,” said Jeremy DeSilva, a professor of paleoanthropology at Dartmouth College. “But we’ve lost brain tissue equal to the volume of a lime—it isn’t a tiny little sliver we’re talking about.”
Many anthropologists had initially posited the changes coincided with the advent of agricultural practices around 10,000 years ago, and a global shift away from hunting and gathering.
The more-recent dates from DeSilva’s group point to booming eras for ancient civilizations in North Africa, the Middle East and South America—complex societies that they think may have played a role in the shrinkage.
Researchers suggested that perhaps our need to maintain a large brain—to keep track of information about food, social relationships, predators and our environment—has also relaxed in the past few millennia because we could store information externally in other members of our social circles, towns and groups.
“We’re so social that we don’t have to know everything anymore,” DeSilva said. “And we collectively then operate as a pretty functional society.”
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. That average rapidly dropped by around 10%, or up to 150 cubic centimeters, over the course of the last few millennia.
Read more at the link in our bio.
But a growing body of evidence suggests our brains recently changed in an unexpected way: They diminished in size sometime following the end of the last Ice Age.
“Most people think of brain evolution happening in this linear way. It grows, plateaus and stops,” said Jeremy DeSilva, a professor of paleoanthropology at Dartmouth College. “But we’ve lost brain tissue equal to the volume of a lime—it isn’t a tiny little sliver we’re talking about.”
Many anthropologists had initially posited the changes coincided with the advent of agricultural practices around 10,000 years ago, and a global shift away from hunting and gathering.
The more-recent dates from DeSilva’s group point to booming eras for ancient civilizations in North Africa, the Middle East and South America—complex societies that they think may have played a role in the shrinkage.
Researchers suggested that perhaps our need to maintain a large brain—to keep track of information about food, social relationships, predators and our environment—has also relaxed in the past few millennia because we could store information externally in other members of our social circles, towns and groups.
“We’re so social that we don’t have to know everything anymore,” DeSilva said. “And we collectively then operate as a pretty functional society.”
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. That average rapidly dropped by around 10%, or up to 150 cubic centimeters, over the course of the last few millennia.
Read more at the link in our bio.
Great to see brain science coverage as a topic in top tier global news! As a past life global neurology PR person, I also enjoyed picking this up via exploring new WhatsApp Channels to test them. Given so few stories there actually, I finally noticed this piece via there the other day. Signed, an expat yogi currently furious about rude construction volume because it hurts my brain, currently in beach realms of Asia 🧠🪶🎧🌿
But our hearts have grown! Really...cardiomegaly is a real problem commonly associated with many common poor lifestyle choices.
Maybe y’all, not me tho
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Actually i singlehandedly lower the avereage
Considering IQ scale needs to be corrected by an average of +4 points generation by generation, the fact that our brain’s now smaller means just it is more efficient. This hypothesis could be confirmed by the fast development of the intracortex connections, commonly associated to superior cognitive functions.
10 minutes on this app are sufficient to acknowledge this fact
Boomer propaganda
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Efficiency is key.
I believe that just by scrolling through this comment section.
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Oxygen levels decreasing
Well ya see, Norm, it's like this. A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers. 🍻
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What if in fact what is happening to the brain is an evolution? as happened with televisions, telephones, micro chips, among other things. They have decreased in size but have much greater power.
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It's not the size of the brain, it's the amount of wrinkles. You can have a big brain that's as smooth as steel or a smaller brain that's as wrinkly as hands that have been underwater for a long time. The latter is closer to what determines intelligence.
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@wsj This decrease aligns with the advent of the written word and books which greatly wiped out oral storytelling and the necessity of committing to memory entire epics.
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Smaller brain might have tighter and more complex connections? My guess. The thing is we don’t have to rely on basic actions like finding food but we have a much more complex society so we can expect to use more of our brains. 🤔
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Fiction.
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It's because we have to compress all this info, so that we have concentrated knowledge 😂😂
Tenho fome
Who cares? Every invention ever happened after the brains got smaller...
Explains the rise of leftism
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Look around. It’s evident.
Do we still use the same percentage ?
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@mwrobot thanks for the contribution
The advancement of AI will further shrink our brains.
MAGA…. @nolosba @ithatvladguy
Must be climate change 😂
@joannnnejang 내 작은 머리로는..
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That makes sense to me. After what covid had to show me... the small brain problems people had almost immediately... yep! This is an acceptable fact.
When you see some comment sections on the internet this becomes apparent
Brain size isn’t necessarily an
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