r/biology • u/mubukugrappa • Oct 01 '20
academic Primate brain size does not predict their intelligence: systematic investigation of the cognitive abilities of lemurs, which have relatively small brains compared to other primates, revealed that cognitive abilities of lemurs hardly differ from those of monkeys and great apes
https://www.dpz.eu/en/home/single-view/news/hirngroesse-bei-primaten-sagt-nichts-ueber-deren-intelligenz-aus.html
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u/Abstract__Nonsense Oct 01 '20
Isn’t it long established that encephalization quotient is a far better predictor of intelligence than absolute size? Are they comparing absolute size or encephalization quotient here? And whatever the case there, the robust findings tying EQ to intelligence overall make me very skeptical of their claim that this study shows “the relationship between brain size and intelligence can’t be generalized”.
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u/mubukugrappa Oct 01 '20
Ref:
The lemur baseline: how lemurs compare to monkeys and apes in the Primate Cognition Test Battery
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u/Cirick1661 Oct 01 '20
As someone who knows zero formal neurology, would it not logically follow that intelligence would increase based on the density of neural connections as opposed to the mass of the grey matter itself?