anthropologists from the University of Nevada and the University of Liverpool. John Moores refuted the hypothesis that the transition to complex civilized societies contributed to the shrinking of the human brain – in contrast, according to their study, brain size has not changed since the emergence of our species. The study was published in the journal Boundaries in Ecology and Evolution.
The scientists analyzed data based on more than 1,000 museum skull specimens collected by another team of anthropologists for the 2021 publication. It was then shown that the human brain was greatly reduced 3,000 years ago, at the very beginning of the transition of human societies to communal life in cities with complex social structures.
The authors of the new paper were surprised that the sharp decline in the size of a modern human’s brain occurred in an era of many important innovations and historical events: the emergence of the New Kingdom in Egypt, the development of Chinese writing, the Trojan War, and the emergence of the Olmec civilization.
A reanalysis of the 2021 data showed that the human brain did not shrink 3,000 years ago. Moreover, its dimensions have not changed much in the last 30 or 300,000 years. Additionally, the growth of agriculture and complex communities occurred at different times around the world, meaning changes in brain size must have different timing. 2021 data combines the UK, China, Mali and Algeria.
According to the authors of the 2021 paper, the shrinking of the brain may be due to the fact that the distribution of information among members of a large group makes it unnecessary to store data in each individual’s brain. This idea was based on evolutionary patterns observed in ant colonies.