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I think most of the brain manages the physical body. This is why it's size is roughly proportional to the body weight. I don'y know how much of the brain is us
by BurningFrog 3y ago
I think most of the brain manages the physical body. This is why it's size is roughly proportional to the body weight.
I don'y know how much of the brain is used for "thinking", and I suspect science doesn't either.
- pdonis 3y agoI don't think it's quite that bad. I don't have my copy of Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale handy, but I remember it discusses research into the relationship between brain size and body size. The two key findings that I remember are: (1) The scaling law. One might think brain size should scale as body size, if the key is simply weight, or number of neurons; or one might think brain size should scale as the 2/3 power of body size, if one takes into account the square-cube law. The research Dawkins describes found that the actual scaling was in between the two: brain size generally scales as the 3/4 power of body size. (2) Differences between groupings of animals. This basically affects the constant that multiplies (body size to the 3/4 power) in the equation for expected brain size. IIRC primates have the largest constant, cetaceans have the second largest, but octopuses and squids also have a fairly high constant. I don't remember seeing any data on corvids.
- xvilka 3y agoThis kind of scaling applies well beyond brain. I recommend checking out the book Scale by Geoffrey West[1] for more examples. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31670196-scale https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31670196-scale
- LightBug1 3y agoAdding a drive-by comment about those stories you read where a person has had a significant X% of their brain removed due to illness, and they still function normally. All is not what it seems.