Animal Minds (Animals)

by David Turell , Monday, June 20, 2011, 02:51 (4904 days ago) @ xeno6696

I'm going to call you out on this one here... because anatomically, the only real difference between us and the rest of the ape kingdom is that we have a larger prefrontal cortex. (Outside of a larger brain overall.) -I'm not afraid of your call out: our brain is 4 times the size of the chimp, smaller than the elephant or the whale, but the logorithmic relationship between brain size and animal body size finds us way off the relationship line. (See the very recent Sci Am) -
> Bottom line is, you can technically argue that each species' brain is different when you just pluck it out of the head, but the fact that all our brains are made of the same basic 'stuff' screams degree rather than kind.-Very false analogy. We have 100 billion neurons with 100 billion synapses. It is this complexity that makes it kind, not degree.
> 
> As a caveat, mathematically speaking, each brain you look at is completely different from the next, so technically speaking, there is NO similarity even between the brains of two healthy adult humans (even if they are identical twins). -That comment is totally beside the point. We are discussing the average human brain against any other mammalian brain. The book I mentioned is not yet out but takes Adler's side. Check into it.