Neanderthal brains resembled ours—literally

(When we talk about “intelligence,” we are describing something difficult, to be honest, tangible; it is impossible to quantify it exactly, but this has not stopped generations of scientists from trying. Researchers who study cognition divide it into special areas: attention, inhibition, flexibility of consciousness, speech, speech, coordination of events and memory. other parts of the brain, but those relationships are often difficult.)

Therefore, when we look at brain size and intelligence, the difference between the human brain is small compared to the difference between the human brain and any other large ape brain. For example, our closest relatives, monkeys, have a brain size of 400 cubic centimeters; an average adult’s brain takes up about 1,350 cubic centimeters. (And there are different sizes, from about 1,100 to 1,500 cubic centimeters.)

So brain volume is “the best indicator of behavior and cognition among primates,” unless you’re comparing different primate species. Within species, the differences are not pronounced enough to be important.

If you are comparing, say, crows and dolphins, you have to consider the size of the brain compared to the size of the whole animal, which scientists call the encephalization quotient; according to Schoenemann and his colleagues, it is less related to monkeys, where it is all about growth.

With that in mind, a group of early hominins called Australopithecus afarensisWHO lived about 3.2 million years agohe had a brain of about 500-cubic-centimeters. It is such a big difference that we can imagine that they were more like apes cognitively than we are. On the other hand, the average group of Neanderthals had brain power that matched those who scored the same on mental tests as them. A wise man neighbors.