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by Mike McNamee Published 01/08/2016

Some Brain Myths (quoted from the web)

Myth 4: Humans have the biggest brains.

The human brain is quite large in proportion to body size, but another common misconception is that humans have the largest brains of any organism. How big is the human brain? How does it compare to other species?

Reality Check: The average adult has a brain weighing in at about three pounds and measuring up to about 15 centimeters in length. The largest animal brain belongs to that of a sperm whale, weighing in at a whopping 18 pounds! Another large-brained animal is the elephant, with an average brain size of around 11 pounds.

But what about relative brain size in proportion to body size? Humans must certainly have the largest brains in comparison to their body size, right? Once again, this notion is also a myth. Surprisingly, one animal that holds the largest body-size to brain ratios is the shrew, with a brain making up about 10 percent of its body mass.

"Our primate lineage had a head start in evolving large brains, however, because most primates have brains that are larger than expected for their body size. The Encephalization Quotient is a measure of brain size relative to body size. The cat has an EQ of about 1, which is what is expected for its body size, while chimps have an EQ of 2.5 and humans nearly 7.5. Dolphins, no slouches when it comes to cognitive powers and complex social groups, have an EQ of more than 5, but rats and rabbits are way down on the scale at below 0.4." - Michael Balter, Slate.com Myth 6: Drinking alcohol kills brain cells.

Partly related to the myth that we never grow new neurons is the idea that drinking alcohol can lead to cell death in the brain. Drink too much or too often, some people might warn, and you'll lose precious brain cells that you can never get back. We've already learned that adults do indeed get new brain cells throughout life, but could drinking alcohol really kill brain cells?

Reality Check: While excessive or chronic alcohol abuse can certainly have dire health consequences, experts do not believe that drinking causes neurons to die. In fact, research has shown that even binge drinking doesn't actually kill neurons.

"Scientific medical research has actually demonstrated that the moderate consumption of alcohol is associated with better cognitive (thinking and reasoning) skills and memory than is abstaining from alcohol. Moderate drinking doesn't kill brain cells but helps the brain function better into old age. Studies around the world involving many thousands of people report this finding." - PsychCentral.com

Behance

Staying with Adobe, their Behance website is a rich source of professional level inspiration from many big-budget shoots and projects (we are talking Nike, Adidas, Adobe here!). Behance lives under the guiding mission statement: 'We built a platform to remove barriers between talent and opportunity'. It was set up 10 years ago and to give you an idea of its reach, over the last 30 days the site has had 67,083,591 views! Be warned at the outset the site is addictive and time-eating, you might be best regarding it as something to browse over your morning coffee, but set an alarm on your phone! In pursuit of research (naturally) we found ourselves browsing it for over three hours for this feature. The way that you use Behance is a bit opaque at first. You have to register but that is not a problem. Then you can look under chosen topics and highlight people to 'follow' so that they are added to your collections. This is important - it is very easy to see something you like and then lose it for hours when you decide to come back for a second look; add it to your followed list , you can always unfollow it later. If you return later, you can click on your 'collections' and review the stuff that is available. Once you have identified a piece of art that seems to fit your requirements you can arrange to be shown 'visually similar' images by clicking on the magnifier and some clever algorithms will be put onto your screen.

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Contact Mike McNamee

1st Published 01/08/2016
last update 09/12/2022 14:56:06

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