By IANS,
Stockholm: Bigger brains can make you smarter, but the increment in size comes at a price, says a Swedish research. Simply stated, bigger brains may have been made possible by smaller family sizes of humans and other primates.
The findings, based on guppies, a popular freshwater aquarium fish species, strengthen the belief that bigger brains and increased cognitive ability do go together, said researcher Niclas Kolm from Uppsala University, Sweden, the journal Current Biology reports reported.
“We provide the first experimental evidence that evolving a larger brain really is costly in terms of both gut investment and, more importantly, reproductive output,” Kolm said, according to an Uppsala statement.
Large-brained guppies outscored their smaller-brained peers in a test of numerical learning. With more energy devoted to brain-building, brainy fish-males especially-did have smaller guts. They also left fewer offspring to the next generation.
The results in guppies have important implications for us humans. After all, one of the most distinctive features of the human brain is its large size relative to the rest of the body.
“The human brain only makes up two percent of our total body mass but stands for 20 percent of our total energy demand,” Kolm said.
“It is a remarkably costly organ energetically.”