The Domesticated Brain: A Pelican Introduction (Pelican Books)

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Over the last 20,000 years, the human brain has shrunk by about the size of a tennis ball.1 Palaeontologists found this out when they measured the fossilized skulls of our prehistoric ancestors and realized they were larger than the modern brain. This is a remarkable discovery by any standards, since for most of our evolution the human brain has been getting larger.2 A shrinking brain seems at odds with the assumption that advancing science, education and technologies would lead to larger brains. Our cultural stereotypes of large egg-headed scientists or super-intelligent aliens with bulbous craniums fit with the idea that smart beings have big brains.

Small brains are generally not associated with intelligence in the animal kingdom; this is why being called ‘bird-brained’ is regarded as an insult (though in fact not all birds have small brains). Animals with large brains are more flexible and better at solving problems. As a species, humans have exceptionally large brains – about seven times larger than should be expected, given the average body size. The finding that the human brain has been getting smaller over our recent evolution runs counter to the generally held view that bigger brains equal more intelligence, and that we are smarter than our prehistoric ancestors. After all, the complexity of modern life suggests that we are becoming more clever to deal with it.

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