Are big-heads smarter?
We live in a world where bigger is often seen as better - and the size of someone's brain is no exception. But a listener in Nairobi wants to know, does size really matter when it comes to grey matter? CrowdScience presenter Marnie Chesterton is on a mission to find out if the physical attributes of our head and brain can tell us anything about what's going on inside. We certainly thought so in the past.
In the 1800s, phrenology \u2013 determining someone\u2019s characteristics by their skull shape \u2013 was very fashionable and curator Malcolm MacCallum gives us a tour of the extensive phrenological collection of death masks and skulls in Edinburgh\u2019s anatomy museum. It's a 'science' that's now been completely debunked. Yet there\u2019s no escaping the fact that over our evolutionary history, human brain size has increased dramatically alongside our cognitive capabilities.
But is it the whole story? Rick Potts, Director of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian tells of the point in time when human brains expanded the most; a time when the climate was changing, resources were unreliable and the intelligence to be adaptable might mean the difference between life and death. Adaptability is also key to Professor Wendy Johnson\u2019s definition of intelligence, although she points out that IQ test, flawed as they are, are still the best predictor we have for intelligence\u2026 and that, yes, there is a weak correlation between having a larger head, and doing better at IQ tests. Why is that? We don\u2019t know, says Dr Stuart Ritchie from KCL. According to him, neuroscientists are only in the foothills of understanding how a physical difference in the brain might underpin a person\u2019s psychology. But researching this could offer valuable insights into how our amazing brains work.
[Image: Brain being measured. Credit: Getty Images]