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Dolphin brain and human brain

Dolphin brain and human brain

By Heri MendemboPublished 11 months ago 3 min read
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Dolphin brain and human brain

Dolphin brain and human brain:

Humans and dolphins are often compared because dolphins are known to be highly intelligent. Dolphins are mammals that can solve problems and exhibit advanced social behaviors. This has led many people, including scientists, to ask:

What is the difference between the dolphin brain and the human brain?

These brains are very different in some ways, but similar in others. It explains how our brain differs from that of a dolphin and how those differences affect each species. For comparison, we use the bottlenose dolphin brain as a contrast to the average human brain. Data are more widely available as this particular species has been most thoroughly studied.

The biggest differences between the human brain and the dolphin brain are the overall size, the hippocampus, and the cerebral cortex. The dolphin brain is larger than the human brain, weighing 1,600 grams, while the human brain weighs 1,300 grams.

The human brain has a highly developed prefrontal cortex, which is the largest in primates, but the prefrontal cortex of dolphins is small and underdeveloped. Finally, compared to dolphins, the human brain has a larger hippocampal area.

These are the top three differences between human and dolphin brains, and these may help explain the differences in intelligence between her two species.

Dolphin brains are larger than human brains. The average dolphin brain weighs about 1,600 g, and the average human brain weighs about 1,300 g.

However, when comparing the size of the human brain to that of a dolphin, it is not enough to say that the bigger the brain, the smarter the creature. In fact, relative to body size, humans have larger brains than dolphins. Although dolphins have the largest brain-to-weight ratio, they still lag behind humans in terms of intelligence.

Dolphin brain and hman brain:

Development of the prefrontal cortex

While the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of the human brain is highly developed and the largest among primates, the size of the dolphin prefrontal cortex is limited. PFC is key to planning actions, making decisions, and participating in social actions with others.

In humans, the PFC is responsible for executive functions, allowing us to strive towards specific goals and determine possible outcomes. The lack of PFCs in dolphins may explain why dolphins have less external intelligence than humans.

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Hippocampus

The human brain has a much more developed hippocampus than the dolphin brain. The hippocampus is a fairly small region of the human brain, shaped like a seahorse. The hippocampus is responsible for factors such as memory, learning, motivation, and emotion.

In human brain, the hippocampus is most commonly thought of in terms of how it affects memory. A more developed hippocampus allows humans to have better long-term memory than dolphins. This could explain another reason why humans are able to perform more complex cognitive tasks than dolphins. We can learn information, retain it, and recall it later.In

cerebral cortex

The dolphin brain has a more cerebral cortex than the human brain. A dolphin's brain has 40% more cerebral cortex than a human's. In particular, dolphin brains have more folds and grooves (gyri and grooves) in the cerebral cortex than humans.

However, humans still have a highly developed cerebral cortex. But not only do our brains have less mass, they also have less overall surface area than dolphin brains. As such, we haven't really explored the depth of her intellectual prowess.

The cerebral cortex is used to control higher thinking, motor skills, and other functions Human brains have a higher encephalization quotient than dolphin brains. The encephalization quotient is the ratio between the real and predicted brain mass of an animal-based on its body size.

For human beings, the encephalization quotient is higher than any other animal at 6.56. Dolphins are not too far behind at 4.0 EQ.

Why Aren’t Dolphins as Smart as Humans?

We’ve mentioned that dolphins have a larger brain than humans and they also possess greater encephalization in the cerebral cortex. So, why aren’t dolphins as smart as humans? Many reasons exist for this intellectual disparity.

All in all, dolphins have incredible brains that we have only just now started to understand. Much of their brain processes remain a mystery to human beings. Although many differences between human brains and dolphin brains exist, the truth is that they are quite possibly the second-smartest creatures on Earth.

While that is very useful information and allows humans to learn about how brains and cognition work, it raises some ethical questions about keeping these animals in enclosures so they can be exhibited. Moreover, it raises further questions about what it means to kill a creature with this level of cognition. These disputes are important to consider now and require greater thought in the future.

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