The animal with the largest brain. Elephant brain: volume and weight. Comparison of the brain of an elephant and a human. How much does an elephant's brain weigh?
The famous 19th-century forensic scientist Cesare Lombroso argued that genius is abnormal brain activity bordering on epileptoid psychosis. " Genius is brain damage”, - a hundred years later, the director of the Institute of the Human Brain, Svyatoslav Medvedev, supported him.
Fools, wise men, geniuses
It is well known that, depending on mental abilities, humanity is divided into ordinary people, smart and stupid, and also geniuses. For a long time, scientists assumed that everything depends on some anatomical features of the mental apparatus, and they tried hard to find them. In the first three groups, it was not possible to identify any differences, they decided to deal with geniuses.
Recognized scientific authorities began to measure the volume of the brain of great people, weigh it, count the number of convolutions. The results were the most contradictory: some of the brilliant personalities had a very large brain, someone had a very small one.
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev possessed the largest brain (of those studied): his weight is 2012 grams, which is almost 600 grams more than the average. But the brain of Anatole France is almost a kilogram lighter than Turgenev's. But who will undertake to assert that Turgenev wrote twice as well as Frans!
In women, the brain turned out to be on average 100 grams lighter than a man's, although among them there were persons who not only did not concede, but also far exceeded men in intelligence. And interestingly, the largest brain - 2222 grams - was possessed by a person who was unanimously considered a fool by those around him.
Thus, the hypothesis that mental abilities directly depend on the size of the brain was refuted. But its authors proceeded from the seemingly logically obvious: the larger the brain, the more nerve cells in it that can perform more complex tasks. But this did not take into account that nerve cells work in cell ensembles with a certain hierarchical structure.
Then, to assess genius, another parameter was proposed - the number of furrows and convolutions on the surface of the cerebral cortex. But even here, scientists were disappointed: the cerebral cortex of geniuses turned out to be no more prominent, and there were no more convolutions on it than in ordinary people.
Einstein's brain: left and right views (photo by Brain (2012) / National Museum of Health and Medicine).
Pantheon of Brains
In the late 20s of the XX century, the government set the "task of the century" for Soviet scientists: to figure out how to ensure that "any cook could run the state." In other words, is it possible to grow people with exceptional mental abilities.
To conduct relevant research, the famous neurologist, psychiatrist and psychologist academician Bekhterev suggested creating the so-called "Pantheon of the Brain" in Leningrad, where flasks with a national treasure - the brains of famous Soviet people - would be stored. He even wrote a draft decree, according to which the brains of the "great" after their death were to be transferred to the "Pantheon" without fail.
The scientist himself died suddenly in 1927 under mysterious circumstances, but his idea survived. On the initiative of People's Commissar of Health Semashko, in Moscow, where since 1924 there was already a laboratory for studying the brain of Lenin, an institute was opened where they began to transfer the brains of party and government leaders, scientists, writers and artists.
In 1934, for example, it was reported that the scientific team of the institute was studying the brains of Clara Zetkin, A.V. Lunacharsky, Academician M.N. Pokrovsky, V.V. Mayakovsky, Andrey Bely, Academician V.S. Gulevich. Then the collection was replenished with the brains of K.S. Stanislavsky and singer Leonid Sobinov, Maxim Gorky and poet Eduard Bagritsky and others.
Before getting on the table to the scientist for detailed study, the brain was subjected to a preparatory study.
It went on for about a year. First, the brain was divided using a macrotome - a machine resembling a guillotine - into parts that were "compacted" in formalin and filled with paraffin, forming blocks. Then, using the same macrotome, they were divided into a huge number - up to 15 thousand - sections 20 microns thick.
However, many years of anatomical research did not reveal the secret of genius. True, the reports recorded that all the outstanding brains taken together "lost" the main exhibit of the pantheon - the brain of Vladimir Ilyich. But it was no longer science, but ideology.
The brain of the leader of the revolution was removed immediately after his death in 1924. For more than ten years, he was carefully studied under a microscope by the German professor Oskar Vogt, who was tasked with proving that Lenin was not just a genius, but a superman.
In terms of weight, the "grey matter" of the leader was nothing special, so Vogt focused on his structure. At the first stage, he declared that the "material base" of Ilyich's brain was "much richer than usual." And then he made a report in which he stated: “The brain of Vladimir Ilyich is distinguished by the presence of very large and numerous pyramidal cells, the layer of which consists of the cerebral cortex -“ gray matter ”, - just as the body of an athlete is distinguished by highly developed muscles ... Anatomy Lenin's brain is such that he can be called an "associative athlete".
But Vogt's colleague Walter Spielmeier criticized the report, saying that large pyramidal cells were also found in the brains of demented people. Since 1932, the question of the secret of the leader's genius has ceased to be publicly discussed.
Painstaking long-term studies of the employees of the Institute of the Brain did not give the desired results, rather, they even moved away from unraveling the mystery.
Genius slow-witted
It has been established that the average person "exploits" only one-tenth of his brain. It is logical to assume that the “supreme commander” of geniuses works to its fullest. It turned out not! Not only do they have even less convolutions involved, they also have lower, primitive and evolutionarily ancient parts of the brain that are sleeping peacefully in ordinary citizens.
This unexpected conclusion was reached by neuroscientists John Mitchell and Allan Snyder from the Center for the Study of the Brain at the Australian National University in Canberra. For several years, they have been studying people with phenomenal abilities, using the installation for positron and nuclear resonance imaging, which allows you to see which parts of the brain work when processing information from the senses.
It turned out that only about a quarter of a second passes between the moment when an image focused by the lens falls on the retina of the eye and the conscious perception of what is seen. During this time, an ordinary person automatically comprehends the information. But, processing it, he crosses out most of the information received, leaving a general impression of what he saw.
Genius, on the other hand, perceives everything in fantastic detail. It's the same with hearing: an ordinary person appreciates the whole melody, and a genius hears individual sounds. It turns out that the secret of genius lies in the "wrong" work of the brain - he pays the main attention to details. Which allows him to draw brilliant conclusions.
American colleagues of Australian neurophysiologists, who have been studying the functioning of the brain of people with a very high level of intelligence characteristic of geniuses for several years, have found that such individuals think more slowly than ordinary people and therefore are more likely to come to a truly brilliant solution.
This is due to the fact that in the area of the brain, which is responsible for the perception of visual and sensory information, they have an increased concentration of NAA molecules.
It is these molecules that are necessary for the formation of unusual intelligence and extraordinary creative thinking.
However, to the surprise of experts, the movement of NAA in the brains of individuals with very high IQ (that is, geniuses) is slower than in their less intelligent counterparts. In particular, according to the researchers, Albert Einstein had a habit of thinking about any issue for a long time and invariably found an ingenious solution. He had such a feature since childhood, he was even called slow-witted.
Americans describe the work of the brain of geniuses in this way. NAA molecules are found in the tissues of the gray matter, which is made up of neurons. Communication between them is carried out through axons (processes of a nerve cell that conduct nerve impulses from the cell body to innervated organs or other nerve cells), which are part of the white matter.
At the same time, in average people, axons are covered with a thick fatty sheath, which allows nerve impulses to move faster. In geniuses, this fatty membrane is extremely thin, due to which the movement of impulses is very slow.
Scientists believe that most geniuses develop exorbitantly one area of the brain from infancy at the expense of “power-off” others. She - the most "capable" - increases, begins to dominate the rest and eventually turns into a strictly specialized. And then a person begins to amaze with either visual memory, or musical abilities, or chess talents. And in ordinary people, all areas of the brain develop evenly.
This is confirmed by the results of a recent study of the brain of Albert Einstein. The areas of the brain that are responsible for mathematical abilities were enlarged. And they did not intersect with a gyrus that limits other zones, as is observed in ordinary people.
Therefore, it is quite likely that Einstein's "mathematical neurons", taking advantage of the absence of boundaries, captured cells from neighboring zones, which, remaining independent, would perform a completely different job.
So, now the nature of genius is known and it is possible to artificially grow geniuses?
“Each of us potentially possesses extraordinary abilities, and they can be awakened in any one area, that is, to make a person a genius. In the next ten years, as a result of further research, it will become clear which parts of the brain must be turned on and off in order to make a person, for example, Leonardo da Vinci or Pythagoras, says Professor Allan Snyder, one of the co-authors of the sensational discovery.
- But the very nature of man does not allow this, because she does not need "brilliant idiocy" in one very narrow area. The higher parts of the brain realize the complete uselessness of too detailed information and leave it in the subconscious. Genius is a deviation from the norm, and here the brain rebels against idiocy.
Sergey Demkin
The human brain weighs from 1100 to 2000 grams, which is about 2% of the total body weight. At the same time, the mass of the female and male brain is different - in the strong half, the brain is “heavier” by about 100-150 grams. According to scientists, the weight of the brain also depends on the age of the person. For example, a newborn baby has a brain mass of 455 grams. So how much does the human brain weigh? Let's try to understand this interesting question.
How much does an adult human brain weigh?
The brain is made up of many nerve cells and is one of the most important organs in the body. There is an opinion that the level of a person's intelligence depends on the mass of his brain. However, this is nothing more than a myth - the brain of a genius may well turn out to be smaller than the brain of a person of low mental abilities. It is enough to trace the "dimensions" of the brain of many great minds of mankind. So, let's turn to statistics and compare the brain mass of such prominent personalities as:
- Walt Whitman - 1256
- Lenin - 1340
- Stanislavsky - 1505
- Trotsky - 1568
- Mendeleev - 1571
- Pavlov - 1653
- Beethoven - 1750
- Yesenin - 1920
- Turgenev - 2012
- Byron - 2238
As you can see, the presence of talent or personal gifts does not depend on the weight of the human brain. It has been proven that the level of intelligence is affected by certain parts of the brain - the "gray matter". And here, in turn, the density of the location of neurons and the number of connections between them play a decisive role.
Many diseases may well provoke an increase in the cerebral cortex, which will affect its mass. Science has recorded the largest brain - weighing 2850 grams! True, the owner of such a "unique" was a weak-minded person.
An interesting fact: representatives of different races and nationalities have different brain masses. For example, Belarusians have an average brain weight of 1429 grams, while Russians have 1399 grams. If we compare the brain mass of a black American (1223 grams) and the "average" German (1425 grams), then the difference between the indicators will be 202 grams.
The human brain weighs between 1100 and 2000 grams.
Australians have the "lightest" brain - 1185 grams! A little “heavier” is the brain of Asians - Koreans and Japanese (1376 grams and 1313 grams, respectively).
It should be noted that the weight of the brain is not a static value. From birth to age 27, the brain “grows” in weight, and then its mass gradually but steadily decreases. For every next 10 years, a person “loses” 30 grams of the brain!
How much does an elephant's brain weigh?
The average mass of the brain of an elephant is from 4000 to 5000 grams. Compared to the weight of the human brain, the largest mammalian brains are more than twice as heavy. As it has been scientifically proven, the level of intelligence does not depend on the size of the brain - otherwise, the “crown of creation” on the planet would not be a person, but elephants and whales.
The mass of the brain of an elephant is from 4000 to 5000 grams.
What criterion affects the potential level of intelligence? This is the ratio of brain mass to total body weight. Observation of different types of animals showed that animals with a higher score are able to better control their behavior. In humans, the ratio of brain weight to body weight is 1: 40, but elephants cannot boast of such successes - in these huge mammals, this figure is 1: 560.
How much does a whale's brain weigh?
The mass of the brain of a whale reaches 9000 grams.
The blue whale is the largest mammal that has ever lived on Earth. Indeed, the body length of a whale often exceeds 30 meters, and its weight is more than 150 tons.
The brain mass of this water "record holder" reaches 9000 grams, and the ratio of this indicator to the total body weight is 1: 40,000.
How much does the brain and heart of a blue (blue) whale weigh?
An interesting fact is that the weight of a whale's heart is between 600 and 700 kg, and the brain weighs an average of 6.8 kg. As you can see, the whale brain is about 100 times lighter than the heart. Why does a whale need such a “big” heart? The fact is that a small heart would hardly have coped with transporting blood through the vessels of such a huge multi-ton body.
The northern beluga whale is also the owner of a large brain weighing 2350 grams. But his “brother” bottlenose dolphin has a brain mass of only 1735 grams.
The human brain is a unique creation of nature. Indeed, in the total body mass, the share of the brain is only 2%, and to stay even in a state of “rest”, the body needs at least 9% of the energy entering the body. What can we say with the activity of thought processes! As soon as a person begins to think “strongly”, the level of energy consumption immediately increases to the level of 25%. In addition, increased brain activity requires additional oxygen supply. So while solving logical problems or writing essays, our brain “takes” up to a third of all incoming oxygen from the body.
Now we know how much the human brain weighs by itself, as well as in relation to the brain of some animals of the mammal class.
“Let the horse think, it has a bigger head!” - familiar phrase?
And everything seems to be logical - the larger the brain, the smarter its happy owner. Yes, and there are a lot of examples of this: all sorts of insects-cockroaches with a brain of several milligrams, mice, squirrels and titmouse with a brain weighing only about 1 gram, and then - cats (about 30 gr.), Dogs (about 100 gr.) And anthropoid monkeys with brain weighing about 400 gr. - well, they can’t compete with such clever people like you and me, who have, on average, 1400 grams of gray matter. So far everything seems to be correct.
Well, then complete misunderstandings begin: missing out on all kinds of horses and cows with a brain weight of 300-400 grams, an elephant has a brain weight of more than 5 kg, and sperm whales, in general, more than 7 kg! Wow! So that's who they are - the smartest and wisest! An-no!
It turns out that intelligence just depends not so much on the size and weight of the brain, but on the ratio of its weight to the total weight of the whole body. And here man has no equal!
Well, for example: In humans, the ratio of body weight to brain weight is: .... So…. 70 kg divided by 1.4 kg…so…. Yep, 50 times. But in a cow - 1000 times, in a dog - 500 times, in a chimpanzee - 120 times. Well, if you count whales and sperm whales among the “wise men”, then in general it turns out that the weight of their body exceeds the weight of the brain by as much as 3000 times!
In general, our only and closest “intelligence” relatives are dolphins, the brain weight of some species of which reaches 1700 grams, with a body weight of about 135 kg.
But I wonder if there is a difference in the weight of the brain, so to speak, within the human race? It turns out yes, there is!
We continue.
In general, our brain is a rather energy-intensive and energy-consuming thing. For example, a "resting" brain consumes 9% of the body's energy and 20% of oxygen, and a "working", that is, a thinking brain, consumes about 25% of all nutrients entering the body and about 33% of the oxygen that the body needs so much. In general, it turns out that thinking is not very profitable! And even, the question arises: why do we need such a large and “gluttonous” brain?
It turns out that, in addition to saving energy, one more factor is very important for survival, both in the animal world and in the human world - reaction time. And this is where our big brain comes in very handy! A person uses it as a matter of fact as a large and powerful computer, which turns on when it is necessary to dramatically speed up the solution of complex tasks that require enormous stress and quick response. That is why, although our brain is insanely voracious, it is sooo necessary and irreplaceable.
So how does this "computer" work?
Scientists have long noticed that advanced intelligence and an evolutionarily developed brain are present in humans and other animals, often demonstrating social behavior. This led anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar to propose the social brain hypothesis. According to the theory, man developed a large brain in order to be able to live in large social groups. Although in the last 20,000 years, due to the “domestication” of man, his brain has decreased in size, but before that, evolution had to quickly increase the brain of hominids in a relatively short time so that people could unite in large tribes.
In social communication, it is very important to recognize the so-called "outside knowledge", that is, to understand the hierarchy, social relationships and relationships such as "she knows what he knows" and the like. For example, the alpha male in a chimpanzee chooses any females for himself, but at the same time he is tolerant of attempts to mate with them from those who helped him to reign on the throne. Without a sufficiently advanced brain, such intricacies of social hierarchy cannot be assimilated.
Now a group of scientists from the US and the UK has published a new scientific paper "The Social and Cultural Roots of the Whale and Dolphin Brain", which confirms the social brain hypothesis.
The cetaceans (dolphins and whales) have the most advanced nervous systems of any taxonomic group and rank highly on any measure of neuroanatomical complexity. However, many cetaceans are also organized into hierarchical social structures and display a surprising breadth of cultural and social behavior, features of which - which is rare in animals - are very similar to the social behavior of humans and primates. But so far, little evidence has been collected of correlations between large brains, social structures, and cultural behavior in cetaceans.
Whales and dolphins have a vast array of complex social behaviors, including:
- relationships in complex alliances;
- social transfer of hunting techniques (training);
- joint hunting;
- complex singing, including singing in regional group dialects;
- speech mimicry (imitation of other people's voices);
- the use of "voice signatures-identifiers" unique to a particular individual;
- interspecies cooperation with humans and other animals;
- alloparental care for someone else's cub (for example, by a female helper or "nanny");
- social games.
The researchers collected a large amount of data on each species of cetacean - body weight, brain size, the degree of manifestation of social communication on the above signs - and calculated the correlation between these indicators. The first diagram below shows relationships between species and brain size (red for larger, green for smaller). On the second diagram - indicators of social behavior (social repertoire). Finally, below is a graph of the relationship between these two parameters.
Scientists have found that the evolutionary development of the brain is associated with the social structure of the species and with the size of the group. Moreover, the relationship with group size is quadratic, that is, the most developed brain and advanced social behavior are shown by medium-sized groups, and not small or large groups.
The authors of the scientific work point to clear parallels between marine mammals and primates/humans. Dolphins and whales also have a combination of both large brains, hypersocial behavior and a variety of behavioral patterns. It was these qualities that allowed man to multiply in incredible numbers and populate the entire Earth. Scientists believe that in dolphins and humans, intellectual abilities manifested themselves in the course of evolution as a kind of evolutionary reaction to the need to live in a society of their own kind.
The brain of any living being- perhaps the most mysterious and little-studied organ. The functioning of individual types of cells and parts of the brain has been clearly elucidated and described, but science has not yet been able to explain how the brain functions as a whole. Although, for the sake of reliability, it must be said that in recent years, progress in such studies is still observed.
- ablation method - is to remove one of the parts of the brain and then observe the behavior of the body;
- transcranial magnetic stimulation - assessment of the excitability of the brain using magnetic impulses.
- electrophysiology - registration of electrical impulses of brain activity;
- electrical stimulation - stimulation of certain areas of the brain using electrical impulses.
NauchFilm. Brain
Brain size of 20 different living beings, encephalization index
Conducting research, scientists found that the size of the brain is differentiated in different animals, and there is a different ratio of the size of the brain and body weight of a living creature. The greater the mass of the brain relative to body weight, the more brain tissue is used to solve cognitive problems. Therefore, such a concept as the coefficient of encephalization was introduced - the relative ratio of body weight and the size of the brain of a mammal. It is calculated by the formula:
where m– brain mass, g; M- body weight, g.
The encephalization index makes it possible to explore the potentialities of different species.
Brain size does not affect intelligence
This axiom should be considered in more detail using examples of animals of different classes and species.
The classification starts with the largest number (the smartest of the animals) and continues in descending order.
- bottlenose dolphin. The brain weighs 1550 g, the encephalization coefficient is 4.14
- Fox - 53g, coefficient = 1.6
- Elephant - 7843 g, coefficient = 1.3
- Dog - 64 g, coefficient = 1.2
- Macaque - 62g, coefficient = 1.19
- Donkey - 370g, coefficient = 1.09
- Cat - 35 g, coefficient = 1.0
- Sparrow - 1.0g, coefficient = 0.86
- Giraffe - 680g, coefficient = 0.66
- Horse - 510g, coefficient = 0.9
- Sheep - 140g, coefficient = 0.8
- Sperm whale - 7800 g, coefficient = 0.58
- Rabbit - 12g, coefficient = 0.4
- Rat - 2g, coefficient = 0.4
- Rhino - 500g, coefficient = 0.37
- Hedgehog - 3.3g, coefficient = 0.3
- Field mouse - 0.2g, coefficient = 0.22
- Green lizard 0.1g, coefficient = 0.04
- Housefly - 0.0002g, coefficient = 0.02
- Viper - 0.1g, coefficient = 0.005
So, the dolphin is the most human-like in terms of encephalization coefficient.
As you can see, the stereotype about low mental abilities, for example, a donkey, a giraffe and a sheep, has no basis.
An interesting fact: insects do not have a brain; the role of the central nervous system is performed by nerve nodes - ganglia. Theoretically, if a cockroach is left without a head, it will die from not being able to eat.
It has also been shown that the mental abilities of an organism depend not only on the size of the brain, but to a large extent on the number of connections between neurons.
Prevention of brain shrinkage in humans
It is necessary to consider the human brain in more detail, since it is this organ, with a more detailed study, that can provide answers to eternal questions regarding our development and life.
The brain of a newborn weighs 365 d, child 2 years old - 930 d, 6 years old - 1211 g, an adult 1400 d. The coefficient of encephalization of the human brain over the age of 18 is 6.74.
Interestingly, there is a difference between the brain of a man and a woman. The first recorded study of brain sex differences was conducted by Francis Gutton as early as 1882. Later, scientists from reputable, world-renowned research institutes proved that the brain of a man, on average, is 125 grams. more than a woman's brain. In addition, there are also racial and national differences. For example, the owners of the lightest brain are Australians - 1185 g, the heaviest - Europeans - 1375. Moreover, the British brain weighs an average of 1346 g, the French - 1280 g, the Koreans - 1376 g, the Japanese - 1313 The leaders are the Germans, their brain weighs 1425 g. The brain of the Russians is 26 grams smaller than the German one. African Americans have an average brain weight of 1223 grams, which is 100 grams less than that of whites in the United States.
During life, the brain can change its weight in the direction of shrinkage. Basically, the hippocampus is reduced in people suffering from depression and schizophrenics. Scientists now know that some parts of the brain age faster than others. Due to age-related changes, the loss in volume can reach up to 10%. As scientists from the Rush University Medical Center have established, a deficiency of vitamin B 12, as well as a disease such as diabetes mellitus, leads to shrinkage of the brain in senior years.
How to avoid this and prevent the gray matter from drying out?
The answer is simple: you need to eat foods containing this very vitamin B 12 more often. It is found in the largest quantities in milk, eggs, meat, poultry, and fish.
Beans, beans, bananas, grain bread are very useful in this regard - these products contain glucides (slow carbons), which slow down the aging process of the brain. You should go in for sports: even minor loads stimulate blood oxygen saturation, respectively, much more nutrients enter the brain. It is very important to establish proper nutrition for yourself, the main rules of which are a limited amount of sweets, as well as variety in food: the brain does not like diets where you need to eat the same thing for several weeks.
Only the right approach to your own lifestyle will keep your brain young and increase your IQ.