Neurology Scandinavians Have Larger Brains

[edao]

"Humans living at high latitude have bigger eyes and bigger brains to cope with poor light during long winters and cloudy days, UK scientists have said.


The scientists measured the eye sockets and brain volumes of 55 skulls from 12 populations across the world, and plotted the results against latitude.


The largest brain cavities came from Scandinavia, while the smallest were from Micronesia."

Read Article

 

[Maciamo]

55 samples is not a lot.

 

[Reinaert]

This one is really funny:

The Oxford University team said bigger brains did not make people smarter.

 

[cycle]

The Sperm Whale has an enormous brain (9kg).
They must be really smart.

 

[Wilhelm]

well, according to national IQ's, Spain or Italy have higher than Norway, Finland or Denmark

 

[Pyrub]

Yeah if you look at the study, eye size is definitively correlated with latitude, but brain size really isn't.

Brain sized shows a peak sample at 37 degrees latitude. It does show a trend from smaller brains to bigger going into higher latitudes, but most Europeans 35 degrees or higher, showed similar results.

Eye size did peak at the higher latitude and showed a much stronger correlation with latitude.

What this shows is that brain size is more correlated with 37+ degrees of latitude than with higher latitudes which shows a divergence amongst North African and Subsaharan African brain size in comparison to Europeans.

It also does show a fair correlation with eye size and latitude. But again, lower latitude Europeans did not fit well with the correlation.

 

[Franco]

neanderthals also had larger brains than the Cromagnon. So what?

 

[leemadison11]

If you may realized, many Asians too live in High Altitude (Mount Everest is in Asia). But if you look at their eyes...... and as they say that people in High Altitude have bigger eye socket and all....
Its just a theory....
But its true that a Polar Bear has a bigger brain than Grizzly. But Grizzly is said to be as smarter as Polar Bear due to its heavy diet on fishes. Fishes have omega 3 fats which is good for the brain.

 

[mrikë]

A similar study in a University in France(maybe Lyon, I'm not sure) ensued the immediate dismissal of the said professors from their job positions. The study was about how black skinned Africans were less prone to creating a rich civilization due to their scale of evolution. Needless to say, those men knew nothing of history of art in Africa, nothing at all. However, I do find the trend for creating such so-called studies very alarming.

 

[JekyllOrHyde96]

well, according to national IQ's, Spain or Italy have higher than Norway, Finland or Denmark

First of all, just because Finland is a Nordic country that doesn't automatically mean that it's a Scandinavian country. Because it's NOT. If anything; Finland is a Baltic country because the Finnish are genetically and linguistically more similar to the people of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Second of all, your claim is incorrect. Here is an updated IQ chart of this year:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/average-iq-by-country

This chart shows that the people of Norway have an average IQ of 97.13, where the people of Finland has an average IQ of 101.2, and the people of Denmark have an average IQ of 97.83.

[FONT=&quot]Whereas the people of Spain have an average IQ of 93.9 and the people of Italy have an average IQ of 94.23.[/FONT]

There was even a study conducted and published by Mensa that show which countries had the most geniuses per capita. With the top of the list being Finland! AND including three Scandinavian countries in the top 10 of the list as well. Spain and Italy weren't even in the top 10...

 

[firetown]

First of all, just because Finland is a Nordic country that doesn't automatically mean that it's a Scandinavian country. Because it's NOT. If anything; Finland is a Baltic country because the Finnish are genetically and linguistically more similar to the people of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Second of all, your claim is incorrect. Here is an updated IQ chart of this year:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/average-iq-by-country

This chart shows that the people of Norway have an average IQ of 97.13, where the people of Finland has an average IQ of 101.2, and the people of Denmark have an average IQ of 97.83.

Whereas the people of Spain have an average IQ of 93.9 and the people of Italy have an average IQ of 94.23.

There was even a study conducted and published by Mensa that show which countries had the most geniuses per capita. With the top of the list being Finland! AND including three Scandinavian countries in the top 10 of the list as well. Spain and Italy weren't even in the top 10...

I would be interested in seeing that Mensa study.

 

[Regio X]

Not directly related to the topic, but... The ranking is not only about genetics, of course. An example, among many others, is the huge distance between Estonia (100.72) and Latvia (94.79).

Again, correlation does not necessarily imply causation. This interesting article below deals with the differences within Italy back in 2010 (from 103 in Friuli to 89 in Sicily), and answers to Lynn 2010 (In Italy, north–south differences in IQ predict differences in income, education, infant mortality, stature, and literacy).
https://www.gwern.net/docs/iq/ses/2010-beraldo.pdf
"Bratti et al. (2007, 2008) have estimated that as far as capital expenditure is concerned, the available resources per student in Friuli Venezia Giulia's provinces are many times higher than in Sicilia (up to twenty times)."

 

[JekyllOrHyde96]

I would be interested in seeing that Mensa study.

You can just look it up for yourself on Google. It will literally show up on the first page. Yahoo News, The Weeks News, and US News published articles about it.

Even the source I link for the updated IQ scores of this year includes the mention of the top 10 countries with the highest intelligence capital index (recorded from 2017) with Sweden, Denmark, and Finland being mentioned as well on there as well. While Spain and Italy were not.

 

[firetown]

You can just look it up for yourself on Google. It will literally show up on the first page. Yahoo News, The Weeks News, and US News published articles about it.

Even the source I link for the updated IQ scores of this year includes the mention of the top 10 countries with the highest intelligence capital index (recorded from 2017) with Sweden, Denmark, and Finland being mentioned as well on there as well. While Spain and Italy were not.

I wasn't talking about articles about the study, but the actual study.

 

[firetown]

well, according to national IQ's, Spain or Italy have higher than Norway, Finland or Denmark

I have also seen an article that claims Bulgaria has the second highest IQ in Europe, but as usual, the source link leads to something like Mensa's about page, but not an actual study.

 

[MOESAN]

First of all, just because Finland is a Nordic country that doesn't automatically mean that it's a Scandinavian country. Because it's NOT. If anything; Finland is a Baltic country because the Finnish are genetically and linguistically more similar to the people of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Second of all, your claim is incorrect. Here is an updated IQ chart of this year:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/average-iq-by-country

This chart shows that the people of Norway have an average IQ of 97.13, where the people of Finland has an average IQ of 101.2, and the people of Denmark have an average IQ of 97.83.

Whereas the people of Spain have an average IQ of 93.9 and the people of Italy have an average IQ of 94.23.

There was even a study conducted and published by Mensa that show which countries had the most geniuses per capita. With the top of the list being Finland! AND including three Scandinavian countries in the top 10 of the list as well. Spain and Italy weren't even in the top 10...

It isn't the very focus of this thread, but I may not leave some inaccuracies perdure :
OK, Finnish people aren't Scandinavians, but if Estonians for the most speak a Finnish language, Baltic people speake a language of an I-E family, if not Scandinavain (Germanic). Perhaps I 'll answer this thread an other time.

 

[Angela]

European Notable Scientists By birth place.

Did their Scandinavian skulls suddenly grow after 1850?

 

[Mmiikkii]

Makes sense, higher latitude means bigger body, and thus an opportunity for bigger brain.

 

[Wâldpykjong]

Doesn't suprise me.