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The size of the brain is a frequent topic of study within the fields of anatomy, biological anthropology, animal science and evolution.Measuring brain size and cranial capacity is relevant both to humans and other animals, and can be done by weight or volume via MRI scans, by skull volume, or by neuroimaging intelligence testing.
Proxies for animal intelligence have varied over the centuries. One early suggestion was brain size (or weight, which provides the same ordering.) A second proposal was brain-to-body-mass ratio, and a third was encephalization quotient, sometimes referred to as EQ.
Brain–body mass relationship for mammals [dubious – discuss]. Brain–body mass ratio, also known as the brain–body weight ratio, is the ratio of brain mass to body mass, which is hypothesized to be a rough estimate of the intelligence of an animal, although fairly inaccurate in many cases.
Comparison of actual brain size with the size expected from allometry provides an encephalization quotient (EQ) that can be used as a more accurate indicator of an animal's intelligence. Brain of the sperm whale, considered the largest brain in the animal kingdom. Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) have the largest known brain mass of any ...
Encephalization quotient (EQ), encephalization level (EL), or just encephalization is a relative brain size measure that is defined as the ratio between observed and predicted brain mass for an animal of a given size, based on nonlinear regression on a range of reference species.
Animal ability to process and respond to stimuli is correlated with brain size. Small-brain animals tend to show simple behaviors that are less dependent on learning than those of large-brained animals. Vertebrates, particularly mammals, have larger brains and complex behavior that changes with experience.
A meta-analytic review by McDaniel found that the correlation between intelligence and in vivo brain size was larger for females (0.40) than for males (0.25). [18] The same study also found that the correlation between brain size and Intelligence increased with age, with children showing smaller correlations. [18]
Comparing brain size at birth to the size of a fully developed adult's brain is one way to estimate how much an animal relies on learning as opposed to instinct. The majority of mammals are born with a brain close to 90% of the adult weight, [ 23 ] while humans are born with 28%, [ 23 ] bottlenose dolphins with 42.5%, [ 24 ] chimpanzees with 54 ...