Re: whale brains

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Alex Duncan <aduncan@mail.utexas.edu> writes:

>The human brain has a mass of about 1.5 kg. The brains of large
>cetaceans have masses as great as 4 kg, if not more (it's been a long
....
>that whale brains are significantly more complex than those of humans
>using this particular measure of complexity.

There are "house-keeping functions" that the
brain has to perform. Bigger mass implies more
muscle/flesh and more inputs to the brain and more
of the brain has to be involved in instant to instant
tasks. The brain of humans is not a scaled up version
of a chimp brain. Different parts of it have gotten
bigger at a higher rate. See Eccles.

-- 



				Regards, Mark

				http://www.smns.montclair.edu/~hubey

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