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Right? Don’t get me started. I still don’t get what others get from memes. So this is how you are feeling expressed as some nifty animation etc? I feel so much more in touch with the universe now. Thank you.
Communication is an attempt to share thoughts or feelings to others. You can convey these with body language, words, a painting, etc. Some people express those thoughts or feelings as memes. Since humans are very social animals the memes are often a kind of 'shared knowledge' thus they can be likened to an in-joke. If you've ever referenced a joke from a TV show to a friend, could you not see a similarity there?
Not suggesting that it is some highly intellectual pursuit, or that you personally need to appreciate them. I'm suggesting that it is as 'meaningful' as the level on which it allows you to connect with another person.
Well said. And you were so nice about it. Certainly nicer than my holier than thou comment. So rare on Reddit. Thanks.
Memes must do something for many. But yeah I’m not one off the those many I guess.
Maybe, overall nutrition and food access has improved massively within the last century. With that and better medicine like vaccinations especially early on means people are a LOT healthier overall which has a large impact on the growth and development of children and adults.
Fun fact: bees defend themselves from wasps by swarming them then creating enough heat to raise the temperature high enough for the wasp to die. The bees are able to survive only about 1degree (f) more than the wasp, so it's right on the edge of death for them, but the wasp dies first and the bees then stop and survive!
Fevers are basically the human body's way of doing the same thing: it says "I can survive for awhile at this temperature but the virus won't be able to" so it heats itself up to play a game of who dies first with the virus. This tends to be incredibly effective - in fact, many doctors reccomend to NOT take fever reducers for mild fevers because they can be more effective than modern medicine.
Height is largely based on nutrition (apart from genetics). Take a look at South Korea for example. Their rapid urbanization coincided with an explosion in height and musculature of the population. Just look up a picture of a north Korean soldier next to a South Korean one and the difference is nuts. I'd be willing to be that the nutrition also plays a role in the brain size increase, so youre likely not far off
I had so many different veggies as a kid and still skipped my growth spurt some how, and ended up 5'7 at the end of the day. Like literally my growth chart from my pediatrician didn't have a dramatic spike anywhere.
I was fuckin cheated
Yeah that is going to be a fun one:
[A new study investigates the impact of microplastics in the brain](https://ryaninstitute.uri.edu/microplastics/#:~:text=Brain%20scans%20in%20young%20and,may%20contribute%20to%20brain%20disease.)
:(
They are. I’m guessing it’s the primary reason. Some researchers are predicting that in the future all deliveries will be c section because mothers who would have died in childbirth from any size baby naturally are passing on their genes in combination with babies who would have been too big to be birthed also surviving.
I've been worried about this. In theory it's not actually an issue but in the event of like, apocalyptic level tech reduction it may very well be that we go extinct because we've lost the ability to naturally give birth. Apparently the position we have mothers in during the process makes it even worse but it helps midwives so it's still done.
Very possible. A similar result is seen when comparing average female and male brain size. Technically the male brain is bigger on average. But if you control for size that difference dissappears. Also size isn't necessary linked with greater intelligence. Otherwise wales would be the smartest creature on earth by far.
Though this study also showed an even higher growth in cortical surface area and other brain structures. So that probably isn't explained solely by body size.
I mean whales are incredibly intelligent and I wouldn't even be surprised if they actually match our own intelligence but simply can't express it the same us as as they didn't evolve limbs to manipulate their environments and make tools.
The iq of humanity is actually increasing rather rapidly. Might not seem like it, but easy access to diverse nutrition does wild things to the body.
It's hard to say whether that increase is due to brain mass increase or just far better education though.
Probably a reversal of evolutionary pressure caused by maternal mortality. Now “bigger brain, more successful” works a bit better due to Caesarian section births.
I also read it twice and am totally confounded by the claim "Over the course of human biology—measured in millions of years—"
We have not been humans for more than 200,000 years. So was this article written by AI who just showed it's butt or am I missing something?
It depends on whether or not you consider other members of the genus *Homo* (Latin: human) that existed before anatomically modern humans (*Homo sapiens*), humans. The genus started with *Homo habilis* just under 3 million years ago. The scientific establishment considers these earlier members of the genus to be humans so I think that's probably where the article is coming from.
All members of the genus homo are referred to as humans in many scientific contexts. There are also a not insignificant amount of paleontologists who argue that all human species that are direct descendants of H Erectus are just subspecies, meaning we would be H Erectus Sapiens not H Sapiens. I find that compelling given the shear quantity of DNA from other human species that is floating around in our genomes
>UC Davis’s Charles DeCarli, first author of the study, said in a press statement. “Genetics plays a major role in determining brain size, but our findings indicate external influences—such as health, social, cultural and educational factors—may also play a role.”
My first guess would be that more people than ever have access to a ton of calories during their formative years, but I haven't read the study.
When my daughter was born the doctor was concerned her head was too large. Like hydrocephalus large. But they decided it was ok. Fast forward about 2 months and pediatrician looked even more concerned. Then she gives me the stink eye. Runs back to her office and returns with a book that has charts for kids up to 18 years old. Then she measures my head ! And she starts laughing because I was literally off the chart. Off the page. Explains why I can’t ever find a hat that fits.
Had the same experience. We were at the point where they wanted to do an MRI on my son. I had pointed out my head was kinda big and the doctor finally decided to see if that was relevant. Kinda was a serious understatement.
Yep, the doctors were seriously worried that my sibling was going to be born with a serious birth defect because of how big the head was compared to the level of development of the fetus. My mother asked them to please re-do the their analysis with her estimated date of conception instead, and surprise! developement is back within normal parameters.
(I too struggle to find hats that fit - my head is oddly round compared to hats)
Same thought occurred. There would be a story for friends and family.
“My son was born with a head size in the 98th percentile. But luckily my wife’s vagina size is off the charts, which I had often suspected but never confirmed.”
When I was in Korea I heard people talk about how they had put growth hormones in the water as part of the war whatever with the north but I really feel like on top of hearing it was a myth that it really seemed dietary. Food is ridiculously plentiful in South Korea now but my grandpa who was in the Korean war describes the opposite conditions at the time not even a lifetime ago. So I left after a couple years really feeling like the reason there were a lot of tall young guys and tiny older people was everything to do with nutrition access.
As someone with no idea about life post Korean War I’d assume access to more food in the 60’s and 70’s made their average height explode thanks to american influence and access to global food markets.
Same thing happened to my family when they went from dirt poor farmers and laborers in the 1930’s to better paying skills and trades then the average height exploded. Suddenly kids were taller than parents at 15 and grandkids were as tall as their grandparents. I basically look like someone made a 2X scale of my grandpa who famously ate 1 meal a day growing up as a fruit picker.
There's less than 7mm of space between the brain and skull (about the length of a grain of rice). When the brain swells up enough, it can restrict bloodflow to valuable tissue and cause you to die if not immediately treated
Skulls consist of multiple bones and don't fuse together until late age. Your born with 300 bones, but as you grow many fuse together via growth plates. Adults have 206 bones around age 30-35. Old people, over 60 have skulls that are smooth and look like one bone. Less than that there are cracks between the plates that can accommodate growth.
Don't worry, if everyone gets smarter as their brains get bigger, they will build a world with free healthcare and C-sections for all!
Unless the corporations win then just for all the people that matter.
Babies skulls aren’t fused together like adults and are instead a series of skull plates that will fuse at a later date. This is so that they can slide over each other during delivery and expand due to rapid weight growth. Babies heads literally squish during vaginal delivery and the plates allow them to survive this.
Yeah. If the average is up by 6.6%, the small percentage of people who would have died if not for C-sections would have to have truly massive brains to move the average by that much all on their own. We haven't been doing C-sections (commonly) for long enough for it to have any significant impact on the overall genepool.
Especially when you consider the early cohorts were born in the 30s and 40s, when times were a bit harder, and ends in the 70s. Not sure if the caesarean rate increased massively or not from the 30s to the 70s.
No. Most births are still the old fashioned way. There is no evidence for this which has been popular in recent weeks in social media. Nutrition, hygiene, disease control likely factors.
Yeah. Elon cited that for an increase in intelligence, but he's notorious for liking to ignore environmental factors in intelligence because he desperately doesn't want to acknowledge his own privilege.
Not enough time for that to actually impact the genetics of the population, so unless there are a lot of people with significantly larger brains who only survived because they were born by C-section who are pushing up the average, I doubt it. It's more likely to just be a result of better nutrition and general health.
Would have to separate it from other likely factors - improved nutrition & medicine, less lead in the air, fewer pregnant mothers drinking alcohol, fewer children exposed to 2nd hand cigarette smoke, reductions in underage drinking. There's a bunch of trends that happened in the same time period, would be hard to know which factors matter more than others - you'd think it must be a cumulation of all of them.
Seriously! My son was in the 99th percentile for headsize when he was born, it was a natural birth (took 54 hours, sorry not sorry kid, you aren't getting a sibling!) and his head looked like the Coneheads for a few days! Once it rounded out, it was hilarious and slightly unnerving to realize he needed adult sized hats and caps, and when he was 2 it was soo hard to find goggles that fit his little eyes and nose, but had a strap big enough for an adults head lol
That sounds tongue in cheek but as far as we know the body has no good way of being rid of them.
I forget who but there's a guy who calls them Obesigens, things that are just adding mass and endocrine disruptors to us at an every increasing rate, with no end in sight.
Human brains have decreased by a lot in the previous 10k years, we don't know why, but it is probably (most likely hypothesis) due to our diets becoming MUCH easier to digest after the agricultural revolution
I wonder if food could have something to do with this increase
It may also have to do a lot with safety, as there are MANY things that prevent brain growth, such as lead, aswell as humans getting taller which Require a larger brain, the better our diet the taller we become, the larger the brain needs to be, and the less toxic ingest the better it can develop
Even in the poorest countries of the world, the current diet and chemical safety are much better than what the wealthiest people had in the 1900s
Especially since IQ scores have been decreasing for the last 2 decades it’s called the reverse Flynn effect where IQs were increasing until it peaked in the 90s and had been declining ever since https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a43469569/american-iq-scores-decline-reverse-flynn-effect/
After working in a U.K. school (private) I can categorically state that an increase in brain size is not positively correlated with increased intelligence.
I've never actually seen what a scientifically predicted evolved human would look like. Sci-fi tends just to make people look like people, but I suspect within 500-1000 years there would be noticable differences for those living on earth. Notably, I think larger brains would be part of that; as well as some sort of evolution due to the climate change, like larger lung capacity. And modern technology could also play a role, like with legs getting either shorter or stronger, depending on the region and methods of transportation or common work; and arms might go shorter but fingers longer and stronger because of the emphasis on touchscreen tech. On that same front eyesight might get worse, partly due to bright screens and partly due to climate change and greenhouse gases potentially causing more sunlight exposure. Taste/smell probably would get affected by whatever is being put into foods (like micro plastics) and the atmosphere, to where people might be able to taste certain chemicals and either dislike them if harmful or find them tasteful with the body evolved to digest such safely. I'm not sure about sound or touch. Skin, hair, eye color, and many other genetically defining physical appearance traits would become ever more blended, though if space travel and colonization is established then it's very likely we'll see considerable differences with those who left earth (see The Expanse for a good example), and depending on how things are in the future it could be that in like 5000 years from now a new species of homo sapien could be identified and incompatible (physically/genetically significantly different) with homo sapien sapien.
Volumetrically perhaps, but not functionally; studies have also shown that in 5 out of 6 areas, relative IQ across time has been on a steady decline for the past few decades. (with hand-eye coordination being the exception)
Thats not how neurology works. Bigger isn't better. Geniuses aren't smart because they have bigger brains. It's all about how the neurons are wired together. Without further context and research its basically a coin toss if this is good, bad, or neutral. But just assuming bigger brain = better brain is profoundly psuedoscientific.
In the last 75 years we have gone from malnutrition being the leading cause of natural death to excessive caloric intake being the leading cause of natural death.
Our brains are getting less effecient. Smaller more effecient brains is what we want. the brain consumes the vast majority of the energy we consume. Look back at early hominid brains. They ate more because their brains were bigger and less effecient.
I like big brains and I cannot lie
Those early hominids can't deny
Brain volume actually isn't strictly relevant. E.g. people from northern climates have bigger brains from those in southern climates because they have 20% larger visual processing centers. I'd be inclined to wonder if this is compensating for some ongoing complexities of the modern world vs. increases in raw cognition.
A lot of this is probably survival bias pulling up the average. Infants with slightly a larger cranium used to invariably die during childbirth (along with the mother) since they wouldn’t be able to fit through the birth canal. For millions of years this has acted as a strong evolutionary counter pressure on the trend toward larger heads (more brain = good) and narrower hips (more efficient walking = also good). But for the past half century or so, cesarean section procedures have had an exceptionally high survival rate (at least in developed countries) for both mother and child. This is bringing up the short term average considerably since larger-headed individuals are now present in the population at a rate which never would have been physically possible in the past, and it’s likely also skewing the long-term evolutionary trend of our species.
Also for those confidently asserting that evolution can’t be involved on these timescales, remember that in species with high gene flow (humans!), evolution can act within a generation if the selective pressure is strong enough. Dying or not dying is a hell of a selective pressure, and the lifelong benefits to larger skulls and narrower hips (particularly this one) are quite substantial.
Reminder: this subreddit is meant to be a place free of excessive cynicism, negativity and bitterness. Toxic attitudes are not welcome here. All Negative comments will be removed and will possibly result in a ban. --- --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UpliftingNews) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Brain says its the bestest brain ever
I am the GREETEST
Now, I am leaving Earth for no RAISIN! Muahahahaha...
Now he's trapped in a book I wrote--a crummy world of plot holes and spelling errors.
r/expectedfuturama
The amount of times i still exclaim "For no raisin!" Is ridiculous. I don't think anyone ever knows what i am talking about.
Hey brainy, think fast!
r/unexpectedfuturama/
This, this is why I love Reddit
Why who do you think wrote this article? A BRAIN?!?
Big Brain Propaganda
That’s just ur big brain talking
Brain loves other brains
I heard this in the voice of Brain from Lil Dicky’s track “pillow talking” https://youtu.be/NWWeQlXfSa0?si=8uWK0fFJTAyRmRW7
Bitch don’t know bout Pangea?
Fun fact: the brain is the only organ that named itself!
Brain gotta poop
T minus 5 ‘til the brain gotta shit!
I'm learning to play the guitar.
More room to store memes
[like this?](https://imgflip.com/i/8l20kl)
OMG, exactly like this one.
Right? Don’t get me started. I still don’t get what others get from memes. So this is how you are feeling expressed as some nifty animation etc? I feel so much more in touch with the universe now. Thank you.
Communication is an attempt to share thoughts or feelings to others. You can convey these with body language, words, a painting, etc. Some people express those thoughts or feelings as memes. Since humans are very social animals the memes are often a kind of 'shared knowledge' thus they can be likened to an in-joke. If you've ever referenced a joke from a TV show to a friend, could you not see a similarity there? Not suggesting that it is some highly intellectual pursuit, or that you personally need to appreciate them. I'm suggesting that it is as 'meaningful' as the level on which it allows you to connect with another person.
Well said. And you were so nice about it. Certainly nicer than my holier than thou comment. So rare on Reddit. Thanks. Memes must do something for many. But yeah I’m not one off the those many I guess.
Thanks for the compliments friend. :)
I am tempted to respond with a meme
Do you not comprehend Humor?
[https://i.imgur.com/38QHLAM.jpeg](https://i.imgur.com/38QHLAM.jpeg)
Yea human brains have expanded by 6.6 percent - I had to read it twice because I was sure it must say shrunk.
[удалено]
Maybe, overall nutrition and food access has improved massively within the last century. With that and better medicine like vaccinations especially early on means people are a LOT healthier overall which has a large impact on the growth and development of children and adults.
I wonder how much fever reducers have done. High fevers do a number on your brain and used to be way more prevalent because of lack of medicine
Fun fact: bees defend themselves from wasps by swarming them then creating enough heat to raise the temperature high enough for the wasp to die. The bees are able to survive only about 1degree (f) more than the wasp, so it's right on the edge of death for them, but the wasp dies first and the bees then stop and survive! Fevers are basically the human body's way of doing the same thing: it says "I can survive for awhile at this temperature but the virus won't be able to" so it heats itself up to play a game of who dies first with the virus. This tends to be incredibly effective - in fact, many doctors reccomend to NOT take fever reducers for mild fevers because they can be more effective than modern medicine.
Can confirm, I watched a SNL sketch about a fever once, and the only prescription was MORE COWBELL
Pretty sure that is only 1 type of bee that can defend like that against a wasp, not all bees can do that.
Iirc there're three species that can/have been observed to do it, but that's a very small percentage.
Though if you're old, don't play that game of chicken. Brain damage from fever ain't fun.
That a very dangerous thing to say. There are few downsides to taking a fever reducer, but the downside to NOT taking one could be brain damage.
South Korean men are on average 5" taller than North Korean men so these factors definitely play a role.
Height is largely based on nutrition (apart from genetics). Take a look at South Korea for example. Their rapid urbanization coincided with an explosion in height and musculature of the population. Just look up a picture of a north Korean soldier next to a South Korean one and the difference is nuts. I'd be willing to be that the nutrition also plays a role in the brain size increase, so youre likely not far off
Eat your veggies kids
I had so many different veggies as a kid and still skipped my growth spurt some how, and ended up 5'7 at the end of the day. Like literally my growth chart from my pediatrician didn't have a dramatic spike anywhere. I was fuckin cheated
Probably that and less lead poisoning
[удалено]
Yeah that is going to be a fun one: [A new study investigates the impact of microplastics in the brain](https://ryaninstitute.uri.edu/microplastics/#:~:text=Brain%20scans%20in%20young%20and,may%20contribute%20to%20brain%20disease.) :(
I donate blood to remove the plastics
mmhh I do love me some of that tissue without lead
Big brained babies used to die and kill the mom in child birth before modern medicine?
Unironically all those C-section babies might be driving the average up
They are. I’m guessing it’s the primary reason. Some researchers are predicting that in the future all deliveries will be c section because mothers who would have died in childbirth from any size baby naturally are passing on their genes in combination with babies who would have been too big to be birthed also surviving.
I've been worried about this. In theory it's not actually an issue but in the event of like, apocalyptic level tech reduction it may very well be that we go extinct because we've lost the ability to naturally give birth. Apparently the position we have mothers in during the process makes it even worse but it helps midwives so it's still done.
Very possible. A similar result is seen when comparing average female and male brain size. Technically the male brain is bigger on average. But if you control for size that difference dissappears. Also size isn't necessary linked with greater intelligence. Otherwise wales would be the smartest creature on earth by far. Though this study also showed an even higher growth in cortical surface area and other brain structures. So that probably isn't explained solely by body size.
I mean whales are incredibly intelligent and I wouldn't even be surprised if they actually match our own intelligence but simply can't express it the same us as as they didn't evolve limbs to manipulate their environments and make tools.
From what I've read you're probably on the mark
The iq of humanity is actually increasing rather rapidly. Might not seem like it, but easy access to diverse nutrition does wild things to the body. It's hard to say whether that increase is due to brain mass increase or just far better education though.
This is interesting, because cranial capacity is actually down from where it was 10,000 years ago!
Probably a reversal of evolutionary pressure caused by maternal mortality. Now “bigger brain, more successful” works a bit better due to Caesarian section births.
I also read it twice and am totally confounded by the claim "Over the course of human biology—measured in millions of years—" We have not been humans for more than 200,000 years. So was this article written by AI who just showed it's butt or am I missing something?
It depends on whether or not you consider other members of the genus *Homo* (Latin: human) that existed before anatomically modern humans (*Homo sapiens*), humans. The genus started with *Homo habilis* just under 3 million years ago. The scientific establishment considers these earlier members of the genus to be humans so I think that's probably where the article is coming from.
Good answer, thank you.
All members of the genus homo are referred to as humans in many scientific contexts. There are also a not insignificant amount of paleontologists who argue that all human species that are direct descendants of H Erectus are just subspecies, meaning we would be H Erectus Sapiens not H Sapiens. I find that compelling given the shear quantity of DNA from other human species that is floating around in our genomes
Increase is probably the addition of microplastics.
I'm 40% microplastics
Bite my shiny plastic ass
Rookie numbers.
someday, people may live much longer and wonder why we were ever so against microplastics.
Once people can live 1,000 years, they'll wonder why we risked even going outside
Im sure there is an epigenetic effect from the presence of them in our systems
Wonder why
>UC Davis’s Charles DeCarli, first author of the study, said in a press statement. “Genetics plays a major role in determining brain size, but our findings indicate external influences—such as health, social, cultural and educational factors—may also play a role.” My first guess would be that more people than ever have access to a ton of calories during their formative years, but I haven't read the study.
I think this has to be it. We’re so much more well fed than prior generations.
It's all bloat ware.
 For me, it’s all just vaporware
When my daughter was born the doctor was concerned her head was too large. Like hydrocephalus large. But they decided it was ok. Fast forward about 2 months and pediatrician looked even more concerned. Then she gives me the stink eye. Runs back to her office and returns with a book that has charts for kids up to 18 years old. Then she measures my head ! And she starts laughing because I was literally off the chart. Off the page. Explains why I can’t ever find a hat that fits.
>Explains why I can’t ever find a hat that fits. Same. One size fits all? What a crock of shit.
Story of my fucking life. I’m 6’3” with a 32” waist so it’s very hard to find clothes that fit properly as well.
Mine is not small at 59. My wife's is rather big at 61 due to a genetic disorder. Now I really wonder what yours is!
Love this story! Upvoting this is a, uh, no brainer.
Had the same experience. We were at the point where they wanted to do an MRI on my son. I had pointed out my head was kinda big and the doctor finally decided to see if that was relevant. Kinda was a serious understatement.
Yep, the doctors were seriously worried that my sibling was going to be born with a serious birth defect because of how big the head was compared to the level of development of the fetus. My mother asked them to please re-do the their analysis with her estimated date of conception instead, and surprise! developement is back within normal parameters. (I too struggle to find hats that fit - my head is oddly round compared to hats)
Your poor wife and/or vagina
Same thought occurred. There would be a story for friends and family. “My son was born with a head size in the 98th percentile. But luckily my wife’s vagina size is off the charts, which I had often suspected but never confirmed.”
Are our skulls growing too?? Tell me please before I have a meltdown
I don't know. I've seen some pretty big head of people out there. Course they don't seem to be any smarter than anybody else. 😆
those heads are full of hot air
Big people aren't smarter than small people, so don't worry about it
Probably, it’s all due to nutrition and nutrition grows everything
When I was in Korea I heard people talk about how they had put growth hormones in the water as part of the war whatever with the north but I really feel like on top of hearing it was a myth that it really seemed dietary. Food is ridiculously plentiful in South Korea now but my grandpa who was in the Korean war describes the opposite conditions at the time not even a lifetime ago. So I left after a couple years really feeling like the reason there were a lot of tall young guys and tiny older people was everything to do with nutrition access.
As someone with no idea about life post Korean War I’d assume access to more food in the 60’s and 70’s made their average height explode thanks to american influence and access to global food markets. Same thing happened to my family when they went from dirt poor farmers and laborers in the 1930’s to better paying skills and trades then the average height exploded. Suddenly kids were taller than parents at 15 and grandkids were as tall as their grandparents. I basically look like someone made a 2X scale of my grandpa who famously ate 1 meal a day growing up as a fruit picker.
What if we end up like those little dogs that are head empty all of the time because their brains don't fit in their little pear heads?
There's less than 7mm of space between the brain and skull (about the length of a grain of rice). When the brain swells up enough, it can restrict bloodflow to valuable tissue and cause you to die if not immediately treated
Skulls consist of multiple bones and don't fuse together until late age. Your born with 300 bones, but as you grow many fuse together via growth plates. Adults have 206 bones around age 30-35. Old people, over 60 have skulls that are smooth and look like one bone. Less than that there are cracks between the plates that can accommodate growth.
C-sections?
That would be my guess. Big heads aren’t darwining themselves out of the gene pool anymore.
Oh gosh I fear for the future women attempting to birth these basketball heads
Don't worry, if everyone gets smarter as their brains get bigger, they will build a world with free healthcare and C-sections for all! Unless the corporations win then just for all the people that matter.
Yeah unfortunately intelligence is determined by brain wrinkliness not brain size. Or at least that’s what Reddit told my smooth-brained self lol
Stress causes wrinkles on my skin, does that mean it causes wrinkles in my brain? /s
Or we get to grow in vitro like little mushrooms :)
I’ve been to many deliveries and skull plates overlap significantly it’s crazy what babies will do to get out alive
Skull plates? Elaborate? You’ve intrigued me.
Babies skulls aren’t fused together like adults and are instead a series of skull plates that will fuse at a later date. This is so that they can slide over each other during delivery and expand due to rapid weight growth. Babies heads literally squish during vaginal delivery and the plates allow them to survive this.
Babies skull is flexible, as it's not hard yet. So when a baby goes out, it's head is more like a sausage than a round ball.
I suspect nutrition and public health initiatives. Height goes way up as nutrition is improved. I suspect brain size does also.
Yeah. If the average is up by 6.6%, the small percentage of people who would have died if not for C-sections would have to have truly massive brains to move the average by that much all on their own. We haven't been doing C-sections (commonly) for long enough for it to have any significant impact on the overall genepool.
Especially when you consider the early cohorts were born in the 30s and 40s, when times were a bit harder, and ends in the 70s. Not sure if the caesarean rate increased massively or not from the 30s to the 70s.
No. Most births are still the old fashioned way. There is no evidence for this which has been popular in recent weeks in social media. Nutrition, hygiene, disease control likely factors.
Yeah. Elon cited that for an increase in intelligence, but he's notorious for liking to ignore environmental factors in intelligence because he desperately doesn't want to acknowledge his own privilege.
Not enough time for that to actually impact the genetics of the population, so unless there are a lot of people with significantly larger brains who only survived because they were born by C-section who are pushing up the average, I doubt it. It's more likely to just be a result of better nutrition and general health.
Not a bad theory. Be interesting to have some numbers to go with it.
Would have to separate it from other likely factors - improved nutrition & medicine, less lead in the air, fewer pregnant mothers drinking alcohol, fewer children exposed to 2nd hand cigarette smoke, reductions in underage drinking. There's a bunch of trends that happened in the same time period, would be hard to know which factors matter more than others - you'd think it must be a cumulation of all of them.
I still haven't seen bigger brain= smarter
I mean, babies‘ heads don’t really get permanently dented during birth, they consist of like 60% cartilage
Seriously! My son was in the 99th percentile for headsize when he was born, it was a natural birth (took 54 hours, sorry not sorry kid, you aren't getting a sibling!) and his head looked like the Coneheads for a few days! Once it rounded out, it was hilarious and slightly unnerving to realize he needed adult sized hats and caps, and when he was 2 it was soo hard to find goggles that fit his little eyes and nose, but had a strap big enough for an adults head lol
Ah yes, that’s all the micro plastics and PFAS wedged in between the folds.
That sounds tongue in cheek but as far as we know the body has no good way of being rid of them. I forget who but there's a guy who calls them Obesigens, things that are just adding mass and endocrine disruptors to us at an every increasing rate, with no end in sight.
It’s naht a toomuh
Human brains have decreased by a lot in the previous 10k years, we don't know why, but it is probably (most likely hypothesis) due to our diets becoming MUCH easier to digest after the agricultural revolution I wonder if food could have something to do with this increase It may also have to do a lot with safety, as there are MANY things that prevent brain growth, such as lead, aswell as humans getting taller which Require a larger brain, the better our diet the taller we become, the larger the brain needs to be, and the less toxic ingest the better it can develop Even in the poorest countries of the world, the current diet and chemical safety are much better than what the wealthiest people had in the 1900s
What is the supposed link between an easier to digest diet post agricultural revolution and decreased brain size?
If there was ever any doubt that there was no connection between brain size and intelligence then there shouldn't be now!
Depends what you fill the brains with. Garbage in garbage out, like any other piece of computing technology.
I'm a computer
sToP aLL tHe DoWnLoAdiNG! https://youtu.be/RH1ekuvSYzE?feature=shared
I thought about it. I am not sure whether this is a joke or if you are an AI. This human welcomes you to the fraternity either way.
Especially since IQ scores have been decreasing for the last 2 decades it’s called the reverse Flynn effect where IQs were increasing until it peaked in the 90s and had been declining ever since https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a43469569/american-iq-scores-decline-reverse-flynn-effect/
Check out the big brain on Brad!
That’s right, you a smart mothafucka 
And yet...
Too bad a lot of us don’t use them
The autonomic systems keeping people breathing are doing their part if nothing else.
Bigger brains but fewer folds
Smooth.
Exactly
And yet I'm so dumb. Dumb little guy.
After working in a U.K. school (private) I can categorically state that an increase in brain size is not positively correlated with increased intelligence.
Do they count all the plastic?
Probably the nutrition
Scrolling the internet, this is the only thing I read tonight that makes me believe it.
I've never actually seen what a scientifically predicted evolved human would look like. Sci-fi tends just to make people look like people, but I suspect within 500-1000 years there would be noticable differences for those living on earth. Notably, I think larger brains would be part of that; as well as some sort of evolution due to the climate change, like larger lung capacity. And modern technology could also play a role, like with legs getting either shorter or stronger, depending on the region and methods of transportation or common work; and arms might go shorter but fingers longer and stronger because of the emphasis on touchscreen tech. On that same front eyesight might get worse, partly due to bright screens and partly due to climate change and greenhouse gases potentially causing more sunlight exposure. Taste/smell probably would get affected by whatever is being put into foods (like micro plastics) and the atmosphere, to where people might be able to taste certain chemicals and either dislike them if harmful or find them tasteful with the body evolved to digest such safely. I'm not sure about sound or touch. Skin, hair, eye color, and many other genetically defining physical appearance traits would become ever more blended, though if space travel and colonization is established then it's very likely we'll see considerable differences with those who left earth (see The Expanse for a good example), and depending on how things are in the future it could be that in like 5000 years from now a new species of homo sapien could be identified and incompatible (physically/genetically significantly different) with homo sapien sapien.
and tastier
Yes - it makes a lot of sense. Gain knowledge, integrate consciousness = bigger brain!
Mine barely fits tbh...
Not mine. I read “Human Beings”
Volumetrically perhaps, but not functionally; studies have also shown that in 5 out of 6 areas, relative IQ across time has been on a steady decline for the past few decades. (with hand-eye coordination being the exception)
And smoother.
people are also getting taller. I’d be curious how much the changes actually are when you take that into account
Couldn’t be me
Maybe AyyLMAO's are evolved us after all.
Nah, that implies we survive long enough to evolve which we won’t at the rate we’re cooking our planet
Thats not how neurology works. Bigger isn't better. Geniuses aren't smart because they have bigger brains. It's all about how the neurons are wired together. Without further context and research its basically a coin toss if this is good, bad, or neutral. But just assuming bigger brain = better brain is profoundly psuedoscientific.
It's because of all the eggs I eat.
Hungry zombies have entered the chat
Brain needs large quantities of energy. Bigger brain need even more energy. More energy, more CO2. This news is not uplifting, folks! /s
Probably because all we do all day is sit and take in information. The human lifestyle has changed drastically in the past couple hundred years
In the last 75 years we have gone from malnutrition being the leading cause of natural death to excessive caloric intake being the leading cause of natural death.
Its not good news if people dont use them
White American brains from 1930s to 1970s. Not sure where 75 comes from. Maybe I missed something in the article.
Apparently size doesn't matter.
“A dearth of non-white participants”. Where exactly are they getting these disembodied brains?!?
Sure as shit seems we are getting stupider tho.
Gotta make room for the micro plastics
Our brains are getting less effecient. Smaller more effecient brains is what we want. the brain consumes the vast majority of the energy we consume. Look back at early hominid brains. They ate more because their brains were bigger and less effecient.
It had to make room for the micro-plastics
By the state of the people & the Planet…. Those brain cells just got fatter… not more of them 😳🙄
Not big enough that this journalist can spell “incredible”
looking at the state of things you wouldn't know it
Gotta hold all them memes
No shit we've had to retain centuries of built up knowledge
The ability to speak does not make you intelligent
Called Inflammation
I can think of plenty of people that got the opposite treatment
I mean the brain runs the show, we are the brain. Everything else is just an elaborate mech.
Really because from my personal studies the percentile usage of the human brain has been reductive in that same period and it only began with 10%
There's a whole meme about it
If tall people aren't smarter than small people, what's the point of a bigger brain eli5 pls
Brain gotta poop still, please don’t neglect the brain
Not mine :(
Gotten. More brain growth needed
And somehow people are dumber than ever….
Bigger isn't necessarily better.
Well check out the big brain on…everyone?
With the addictions of TikTok, Shorts, Reels, the human brain will shrink back to square one after another 75 years of micro evolution.
And yet people seem dumber
what better nutrition does to a mf
Bigger doesn't always mean better.
I like big brains and I cannot lie Those early hominids can't deny Brain volume actually isn't strictly relevant. E.g. people from northern climates have bigger brains from those in southern climates because they have 20% larger visual processing centers. I'd be inclined to wonder if this is compensating for some ongoing complexities of the modern world vs. increases in raw cognition.
Bigger isn't always better.
And yet we're filling them with so much useless bullshit
"The ***incredibly*** study sheds a light on the resilience of modern minds." /doubt
And yet...
Gotta make room for all the new plastics and heavy metals we’re putting in there
A lot of this is probably survival bias pulling up the average. Infants with slightly a larger cranium used to invariably die during childbirth (along with the mother) since they wouldn’t be able to fit through the birth canal. For millions of years this has acted as a strong evolutionary counter pressure on the trend toward larger heads (more brain = good) and narrower hips (more efficient walking = also good). But for the past half century or so, cesarean section procedures have had an exceptionally high survival rate (at least in developed countries) for both mother and child. This is bringing up the short term average considerably since larger-headed individuals are now present in the population at a rate which never would have been physically possible in the past, and it’s likely also skewing the long-term evolutionary trend of our species. Also for those confidently asserting that evolution can’t be involved on these timescales, remember that in species with high gene flow (humans!), evolution can act within a generation if the selective pressure is strong enough. Dying or not dying is a hell of a selective pressure, and the lifelong benefits to larger skulls and narrower hips (particularly this one) are quite substantial.
Booty's and chi chi's have, doesn't really surprise me.