Abstract
The gross weight or volume of an adult mammalian brain is a natural biological statistic that estimates fundamental between-species parameters of structure and function. Among the relationships that have been discovered, the best established and most important is between brain weight and the surface area of the entire cerebral cortex. It shows that brain size may be used to estimate the total neural information processing capacity of a species. Other quantitative features of the brain that are related to brain size include the number of cortical neurons, average cortical thickness, average neuron density, extent of axodendritic arborization, neuron/glial ratios, and various neurochemical measures.
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Further reading
Reviews and symposia
Armstrong E, Falk D, eds (1982): Primate Brain Evolution: Methods and Concepts. New York and London: Plenum
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Monographs
Hofman MA (1984): Towards a General Theory of Encephalization. Amsterdam: Rodopi
Jenson HJ (1973): Evolution of the Brain and Intelligence. New York: Academic Press.
Application of brain size
Ball MJ, MacGregor J, Fyfe IM, Rapoport SI, London ED (1983): Paucity of morphological changes in the brains of ageing beagle dogs: Further evidence that Alzheimer lesions are unique for primate central nervous system. Neurobiol Ageing 4:127–131.
Nellhouse G (1968): Head circumference from birth to eighteen years. Pediatrics 41:106–114.
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Jerison, H.J. (1989). Brain Size. In: Speech and Language. Readings from the Encyclopedia of Neuroscience . Birkhäuser, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6774-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6774-9_2
Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-8176-3400-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-6774-9
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