3 ms·
There is a rule of thumb that relates the size of the brain to the size of the body. A bigger needs more brain mass just to operate (more nerve endings?). http
by jbattle 8y ago
There is a rule of thumb that relates the size of the brain to the size of the body. A bigger needs more brain mass just to operate (more nerve endings?).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalization_quotient https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalization_quotient
- perl4ever 8y agoI don't think it is intuitively obvious why the brain needs to scale with the body. An elephant would seem to have roughly the same processing needs as a mouse. Maybe 25% more for the trunk or something, but not in proportion to its vastly larger size. Regarding nerve endings, I think it can be shown that the sense of touch does not have as high resolution as you might think,* so I'm not sure more surface area requires more nerves. *I recall reading somewhere about a simple experiment where someone touches you with one or two pins and you try to determine whether it is one or two. At a certain distance apart you can't tell if you don't look.