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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know fromhouse Stuff Works dot com. Hey,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's

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Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and this is stuff you should Know. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I think this might complete our brain. I don't know

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Speaker 1: about that, because we've done Einstein's brain, You've done difference

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Speaker 1: between men and women's brain, and now we're tackling brain size,

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Speaker 1: which is sort of gets on both of us a

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Speaker 1: little bit. It does, but there's always new findings. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying. If there's ever an ongoing sweet,

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Speaker 1: it's got to be the brain. Man. It's growing all

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Speaker 1: the time. It's changing shape, changing size, changing connections. You

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Speaker 1: could almost say that sweet is plastic plasticity. Baby. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's right. Um, you sent me something that I think

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Speaker 1: we should talk about first, Chuck. This is kind of like, um,

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Speaker 1: this is just like a ad bag hodgepodge of loosely

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Speaker 1: related studies that all find that we don't really know

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Speaker 1: the answer to the question like does a big brain

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Speaker 1: mean a smarter person? Yeah, because there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: different conflicting findings. Well, a few million years ago, our

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Speaker 1: brains started growing a lot and that kind of timed

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Speaker 1: out with becoming smarter and using tools and things. So

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Speaker 1: I mean there's a little bit of you call it evidence. Well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's definitely some plenty of evidence. I think that's what

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Speaker 1: the confounding part is that there's plenty of evidence that, yes,

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Speaker 1: as a brain grows, it is correlated to intelligence. But

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Speaker 1: then that's only holding true up to a point. I

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Speaker 1: sounded like a Soviet immigrant. Just then that's only holding

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Speaker 1: true up to a certain point. Right. He's in Branson, Missouri, though,

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Speaker 1: did you know that. I think he's got like his

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Speaker 1: own restaurant or something. Well, he's own theater, and I

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Speaker 1: think all the theaters are food buttery. We should go

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Speaker 1: to Branson, man that I want to see what that

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Speaker 1: place is all about. Okay, you know yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: it's a parade of stars. If it's nineteen seventy three,

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Speaker 1: you know. Uh, I bet your boy Ronnie mills Up

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Speaker 1: is there. Yeah. If he doesn't have a place there,

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Speaker 1: I'll bet he plays Branson fairly regularly. He sub lets

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Speaker 1: he would play well there. Um, so Branson, how do

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Speaker 1: we even get them? Yeah? So brain size does correlate

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Speaker 1: to intelligence to a certain extent, But you can point

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Speaker 1: out like, well, sperm whale has a seventeen pound brain.

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Speaker 1: Holy cow, it must be the smartest animal on the planet.

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Speaker 1: Well it's not. I'm sorry to tell you sperm whale

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Speaker 1: fans that it's not the smartest animal on the planet.

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Speaker 1: Humans are the smartest animal on the planet, and don't

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Speaker 1: you forget it. But we don't have the largest brains,

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Speaker 1: so you kind of take that idea of well, if

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Speaker 1: it's not brain size, maybe it has to do with

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Speaker 1: the size of your brain in relation to your body.

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Speaker 1: Then we started to get a little closer to jack pot.

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Speaker 1: But even still, I just want to I want to

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Speaker 1: spoil it for everybody. There's no definitive answer. Yeah, but

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Speaker 1: sometimes those are the best ones because we get to

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Speaker 1: explore all this stuff and we can't really get anything

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Speaker 1: wrong because nobody knows what's right. Oh I like this, then, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I've turned you know these? Yeah, now now I feel

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Speaker 1: good about this because I can't be wrong right exactly. Well,

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Speaker 1: I guess we should start off with um a little

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Speaker 1: bit about what determines what size brain you do have.

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Speaker 1: And again they don't know everything about it, but they

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Speaker 1: think that genetics plays apart. They know this in part

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Speaker 1: by studying twins and identical twins um have, of course

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Speaker 1: the same genes. Fraternal twins have about half the same genes,

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Speaker 1: and there's a greater correlation in brain size if you're

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Speaker 1: identical then fraternal. Yeah, so genetics, you know, looks like

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Speaker 1: it probably plays a role. Yeah, And they've done a

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Speaker 1: lot of exploration into what genes in particular have to

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Speaker 1: do with brain size, and they've isolated a few. Um

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Speaker 1: one is called beta catenin. There's a hyphen in there too.

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Speaker 1: It's pretty flashy gene not beta carotene, no caten in.

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Speaker 1: And who's who's coming up with the naming convention for genes?

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Speaker 1: They are all over the place, like you can't look

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Speaker 1: at the name of a gene and be like, that's

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Speaker 1: obviously a gene unless there's like a couple of weird

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Speaker 1: consonants and a number and then another consonant. Then you're like, well,

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Speaker 1: that's a gene. But you're right, that's a gene. It

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Speaker 1: is a gene, and it's a gene that they know

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Speaker 1: controls brain growth because they've injected poor mice with this

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Speaker 1: stuff until their heads exploded. Exactly their heads they fell

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Speaker 1: short of exploding. But a lot of the mice died

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Speaker 1: as a result of their heads growing too big. But

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Speaker 1: they're they're they're brain means grew big, and as a

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Speaker 1: result of their brains growing big, they exhibited um more intelligence,

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Speaker 1: higher cognitive function. They injected these things with a gene

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Speaker 1: your brain. That yeah, that made them smarter. But that,

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Speaker 1: like Molly points out in this article, you can't. That

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Speaker 1: doesn't mean we should start doing that because these mines

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Speaker 1: are dying, so you can't. Just you can't play god,

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Speaker 1: as they say, no, But it does make you wonder, like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: you don't want to shoot up beta caton in like

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Speaker 1: before the s A T S or anything like that,

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Speaker 1: but like, is there a way to kind of tamper

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Speaker 1: a little less but still tamper with that gene something

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Speaker 1: put under your tongue and let it dissolve. Maybe sure,

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Speaker 1: like you know, just epigenetically, just a tad bit. Yeah

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Speaker 1: not maybe you know, amplify it just a tad and

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Speaker 1: see what happens. But it would cause your brain to

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Speaker 1: grow because that gene is partially responsible for the size

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Speaker 1: that your brain gets to. That's right, as far as

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Speaker 1: large your brains go. Yes, like it makes it larger. Yes,

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Speaker 1: if you want to talk smaller brains, there's another gene.

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Speaker 1: And boy, you're right. The names are all over the place,

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Speaker 1: just convention wise. It's not like they have different names

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Speaker 1: that some are numbers and dashes. And to get it together,

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Speaker 1: people AESPM. It's an abbreviation for abnormal spindle like, uh,

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Speaker 1: micro cephalely associated, that's the name of the gene. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's it's just shameful. And they say microcephalely associated because

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Speaker 1: that is a condition that you've probably seen before when

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Speaker 1: you're born with a small head and small brain, which

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Speaker 1: probably means you're going to have some cognitive impairment. So

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Speaker 1: so right there, smaller brain is is correlated to lesser

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Speaker 1: or lower faculty your cognitive function. Yeah, we should look

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Speaker 1: into that more for another podcast. So I think it's

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Speaker 1: uh from the images I saw, it looks like you

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Speaker 1: remember like the movie Freaks. Yes, that that guy. I

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Speaker 1: think that's so cute the deal. I think you have

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Speaker 1: like normal sized nose and ears and eyes, but your

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Speaker 1: actual head and skull and brain or smaller. You don't

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Speaker 1: look like the the um the African Safari guy from

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Speaker 1: Beetle Chuice not proportionately shrunk, right, it's yeah, how you

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Speaker 1: get him down so small? Right? Favorite? What was that

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Speaker 1: guy's name from Freaks? I've read about him before. No,

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Speaker 1: he had his stage name. It was like Topsy or

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Speaker 1: Flopsy or something like that, and he apparently like the

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Speaker 1: greatest personality of all time, just so lovable and was

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Speaker 1: just exploited basically his whole life until that movie like

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Speaker 1: kind of got vengeance for him because he was a

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Speaker 1: real life side show performer. Well that's good. Yeah, Topsy.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't Topsy that was the elephant that Edison electrocuted,

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Speaker 1: but it was something along those lines. Just a fun,

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Speaker 1: fun name. Yeah, so check. There's another gene. This is

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Speaker 1: a little more genetically sounding e m x two. Yeah

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Speaker 1: that sel sounds like a dirt bike or a gene. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's um Again, we're not We're not saying like, well,

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Speaker 1: these are the genes that provide you with your intellect.

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Speaker 1: These are just genes that they are saying these things

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Speaker 1: have to do with the size of your brain, and

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Speaker 1: they we also have figured out that if you mess

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Speaker 1: with these genes, you may also be messing with cognitive function.

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Speaker 1: So we're laying the groundwork here, everybody to bear with us.

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Speaker 1: The e m x two gene UM apparently has to

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Speaker 1: do with the growth of your UM, the functional subdivisions

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Speaker 1: of the cortex. You have different cortices, they're responsible for

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Speaker 1: different things. So like if in that New York Times

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Speaker 1: article you seth me, the guy uses the visual cortex

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Speaker 1: as an example, UM, where like you get all your

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Speaker 1: visual sensory input and your brain puts it all together.

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Speaker 1: That cortex, that region of your brain is responsible for

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Speaker 1: a fairly specific but also very um complicated task. Now,

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Speaker 1: this one functional cortex that the e m x two

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Speaker 1: gene is responsible for UM has to do with basically input,

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Speaker 1: sensory input and motor output. So your behavior, Like, um,

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Speaker 1: if I came across this desk at you and like

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Speaker 1: pinched your cheeks, you'd like jump back, I'd say, what

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Speaker 1: is it Wednesday? Right? Yeah, you would make the connection

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Speaker 1: that's Wednesday. Your behavior would occur. So, UM, this e

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Speaker 1: m x two gene has to do with that cortex

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Speaker 1: and its size. What they found is that bigger is

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Speaker 1: not necessarily better. If you have a lower expression of

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Speaker 1: it and you have a smaller subdivision of that cortex,

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Speaker 1: you're not to do very well behaviorally functionally, like you

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Speaker 1: won't be able to hit a baseball very well, all right,

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Speaker 1: but if it's too big, if that gene over expresses,

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Speaker 1: you don't get better at hitting a baseball. With this

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Speaker 1: in particular, it seems to be fine tuned. So if

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Speaker 1: you're not hitting that sweet spot, you're never going to

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Speaker 1: hit a baseball. And there may be myriad other problems,

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Speaker 1: but you're definitely not gonna hit that baseball. So that

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Speaker 1: means you're born with baseball talent pretty much. Yeah, because

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Speaker 1: it's genetic, and there's like there's some people who are

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Speaker 1: so close to perfect that like baseball just comes naturally

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Speaker 1: to right, right, like Robert Redford exactly. Yeah, he really

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Speaker 1: gave those lights a wall. Yeah, he's the natural. So

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Speaker 1: that's the genetic basis of it. Chuck. Yeah, and uh,

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Speaker 1: I guess we should talk some about size if it's important,

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Speaker 1: because this is sort of the debate that keeps going

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Speaker 1: on and on. Is brain size corollary to intelligence levels? Uh?

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Speaker 1: They did find or they have found links between if

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Speaker 1: you have a lot of brain growth, um, if it's

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Speaker 1: disproportionate early on, Um, they've linked that then early I

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Speaker 1: mean the first twelve months too. They've linked that to autism.

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Speaker 1: So super rapid growth may what it may do is

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Speaker 1: just prevent those neural connections from happening like they should, right.

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Speaker 1: Um And actually, well that's kind of links into that

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Speaker 1: tethering thing I sent you too, it does, which we

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Speaker 1: will talk about later. Um. In biology, though, is there's

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Speaker 1: kind of this consensus that it's it's not the only determinant,

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Speaker 1: that it has a lot to do with um environment

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Speaker 1: as well, I think kind of as a whole. People

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Speaker 1: who investigate correlations between brain size and intelligence have totally

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Speaker 1: abandoned the idea that, um, like, your brain is predetermined

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Speaker 1: to grow a certain way and then that's the Yeah. Well,

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Speaker 1: size wise, they've also found that if you have a

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Speaker 1: d h D, if you're an adolescent, your brain might

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Speaker 1: be three to four percent smaller than your classmate who

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Speaker 1: does not have a d h D. UM, and your

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Speaker 1: brain shrinks as you get older, but doesn't necessarily lose

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Speaker 1: functionality because of the shrinkage. It's not to say when

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Speaker 1: you get older, you don't, you know, loose functionality, but

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Speaker 1: it's not due to the size. No. They think that, um,

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Speaker 1: it's probably mostly due to really Okay, that you're you're

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Speaker 1: synapsies are just kind of built up with gunk remnant

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Speaker 1: proteins from years and decades of firings. Then you shake

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Speaker 1: that off by continuing to use it. Yes, that's one thing.

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Speaker 1: But also they've recently found that, um, while you sleep,

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Speaker 1: they think now the function of sleep. They didn't notice

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Speaker 1: it before until I don't know what kind of new

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Speaker 1: imaging technology they used, but they found out that there's

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Speaker 1: this whole channel of like basically a sewage system that

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Speaker 1: just clears out all the gunk from your brain while

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Speaker 1: you're sleeping at night. And it's just that's why you

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Speaker 1: are cognitively refreshed. That makes sense from sleep. And we've

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Speaker 1: done we did one on why sleep is important, right, Yes,

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Speaker 1: I think that was in there. We've done a bunch.

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Speaker 1: There's a whole sleep suite too, alright. So one of

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Speaker 1: the reasons why uh people are still debating whether or

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Speaker 1: not brain size equals more intelligence or less intelligence is

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Speaker 1: because when there are a lot of different ways to

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Speaker 1: measure the brain, um, you know, like do you take

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Speaker 1: a tape measure and go around it or do you

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Speaker 1: go from the middle out or do you do it

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Speaker 1: proportioned to your body size, which is a real measurement

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Speaker 1: called insephalation quotient. And if they're talking about your body size,

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Speaker 1: what if you're super fat? Like, there are all these

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Speaker 1: different ways and no one I don't think has ever

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Speaker 1: come to a consensus on the best way to actually

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Speaker 1: do the measurement in the first place. No. And there's

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Speaker 1: another a really big outstanding question is how do you

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Speaker 1: measure intelligence? Like our i Q tests actually legitimate. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So when you have two parts of your equation that

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Speaker 1: are both hinky, how can you come up with an answer? Well,

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Speaker 1: it depends, like if you're comparing species to species, that

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Speaker 1: in cephilization quotiation actually has been proven to be pretty effective.

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Speaker 1: So like the proportion of your brain to your body

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Speaker 1: size is a pretty decent predictor of your e Q

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Speaker 1: is what it's called as a mammal. Yes, as as

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Speaker 1: a mammal. When you go outside of mammals, it gets

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Speaker 1: less and less effective. Um. But with humans, for example,

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Speaker 1: we our our brain is like two point seven pounds

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Speaker 1: on average, it's something like around two to three. I've

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Speaker 1: seen as much as five, but I think it's about

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Speaker 1: three percent of our body weight. Um. But it uses

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Speaker 1: up a about of the energy, which is another measure

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Speaker 1: like how much energy is your brain require? The more

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Speaker 1: energy your brain requires. In addition to things like eq,

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Speaker 1: you can get a pretty good idea of like how

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Speaker 1: intelligent that being is. Well, Einstein's brain remembers this was

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Speaker 1: the same size, but different parts were bigger than others. Right,

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Speaker 1: so supposedly let's come under fire lately. Yeah, somebody was like,

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Speaker 1: these studies are terrible, Like, you can't make these huge

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Speaker 1: leaps and bounds and um in conclusions just from a

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Speaker 1: couple of strips of brain tissue. But apparently most studies have.

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Speaker 1: Well I think that's sort of like a juicy thing

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Speaker 1: that people like to talk about Einstein's brain. Yeah, you know,

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Speaker 1: I could see people making that leap, right, and the

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Speaker 1: idea that like, oh, well, Einstein's brain is just like

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Speaker 1: anybody else's, Well, that means that anybody could be a genius.

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Speaker 1: You know. It really argues in favor of the nurture

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Speaker 1: side of things. But if his brain is structurally different, well,

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Speaker 1: the genius is an inborn natural thing. It's just nature

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Speaker 1: versus nurture played out on pout. Einstein sliced up brain. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that lived in a garage for many years, like everyone's brain.

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Speaker 1: So here's the most controversial thing, Like when you're comparing

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Speaker 1: species to species, like you said, especially among mammals, chuck. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's easier to say like, yes, this EQ thing works,

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Speaker 1: but within a single species that when things starting to

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Speaker 1: fall apart, for instance, specifically among humans. Um, men tend

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Speaker 1: to have about a hundred grahams more mass to their

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Speaker 1: brain than women. But if a bigger brain means that

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Speaker 1: you are more intelligent, then does that mean that men

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Speaker 1: are more intelligent than women? I think we all know

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Speaker 1: that women are more intelligent than men. Okay, so then

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Speaker 1: brain size really has nothing to do with it, at

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Speaker 1: least intra species, That's what I'm saying. But um, there

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Speaker 1: have been plenty of studies that I'm sure got a

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Speaker 1: lot of people's hackles up. Um. One guy named Michael McDaniel,

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Speaker 1: who's a psychologist, basically entered the news cycle bursting onto

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Speaker 1: the scene in two thousand five, which is always a

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Speaker 1: little bit like yeah's this guy right, Yeah, But he

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Speaker 1: came up with a study that was ready made for CNN. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I mean he said flat out that bigger brains means

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Speaker 1: you're smarter and that I E or e G. Which

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Speaker 1: one is it? Uh? I EVE in this case, men

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Speaker 1: are smarter than women. Yeah, yeah, that's what he was saying. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: because he basically put brain imaging tests and i Q

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Speaker 1: tests together and said, well, there's a direct correlation between

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Speaker 1: the two. And again with these tests they did, uh,

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Speaker 1: they compared, Um, they converted s A T scores of

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Speaker 1: a hundred thousand seventeen and eighteen year old to an

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Speaker 1: ice Q score And I don't see why they and

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Speaker 1: had to do that, and they found that males average

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Speaker 1: three point six three IQ points higher. But um, I

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Speaker 1: don't know. It just seems really hinky because first of all,

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Speaker 1: they used ten thousand more females and males, so that's

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Speaker 1: gonna excuw things. And then it's an s A T R.

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Speaker 1: What does that even mean? Yeah, it has been proven

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Speaker 1: time and time again to be biased. Yeah, and then

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Speaker 1: they converted that to an i Q source with some

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Speaker 1: like I guess machine, seems like some things would be

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Speaker 1: lost in translation. Yeah, I think it's a bunch of bunks.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, I think you're not alone in the idea

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Speaker 1: that it's a bunch of bunks. So a lot of

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Speaker 1: um scientists have said, Okay, all right, this whole brain

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Speaker 1: size correlating to intelligence stinks of phrenology when you're talking

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Speaker 1: about looking at it just in the human species, right,

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Speaker 1: So what is it though? I mean, surely there's got

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Speaker 1: to be some biological part or aspect of the brain

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Speaker 1: that correlates to intelligence. If it's not size in maybe

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Speaker 1: it's the number of neurons that you have, Yeah, neural connections.

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Speaker 1: A lot of people have thought that that was kind

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Speaker 1: of the second to most recent wave in thinking about

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Speaker 1: what brain structure correlates to intelligence. Yeah, this um was

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Speaker 1: this the New York Times one about the tether hypothesis.

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Speaker 1: This is just December of last year, so it's pretty recent.

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Speaker 1: And a couple of neuroscientists from HAVID so you know

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Speaker 1: they're right. Um, they had a pretty simple explanation. Um,

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Speaker 1: when back in the day when tooktok had a little

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Speaker 1: bitty tiny brain. Uh. Their argument is that the neurons

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Speaker 1: were tightly tethered in a pretty simple connection pattern, and

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Speaker 1: that when our brains started getting bigger, those tethers were

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Speaker 1: torn apart and it formed h It enabled us, We

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Speaker 1: formed new neurons and new neural pathways and new circuits.

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Speaker 1: That that makes a lot of sense to me. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's like the brain size might have been about the same,

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Speaker 1: and it was, but the neuro connections were still following

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Speaker 1: the primal animal connectivity, where it's like they they connect

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Speaker 1: in a predictable way, whereas with this untethered idea, they

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Speaker 1: just blossomed out. And do you know the idea of um,

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Speaker 1: like like what neuro connections look like today, rather than

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Speaker 1: following like straight predictable lines, they were all over the place.

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Speaker 1: And from these new connections, new associations arose, and that

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Speaker 1: gave rise to intellect. According to this, it's pretty simple smart. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I like, I think sometimes the simplest hypotheses might be

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Speaker 1: on target with acam's razor my friend, or maybe they

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Speaker 1: just speak to me because I'm a dummy other ball um.

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Speaker 1: So that's that is a competing explanation. Another one that

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Speaker 1: I've seen, uh says that it's not not the neurons,

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Speaker 1: not the number of neurons, not even the number of

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Speaker 1: neural connections. It's the chemistry and the complexity of the

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Speaker 1: neuro train sbmitters that are being conducted between these neurons,

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Speaker 1: and from this has kind of come this new idea

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Speaker 1: that it's folly to even say, well, humans are obviously

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Speaker 1: smarter than a bottle knows dolphins, even though they're smart,

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Speaker 1: because the bottle knows dolphins. Um experience understanding of life

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Speaker 1: is so radically different from humans. Yeah, you can't. You

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Speaker 1: can't compare intellect to intellect. Yeah you can't say, well,

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Speaker 1: a dolphin can't, you know, talk and speak, but I

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Speaker 1: can't do things a dolphin can do. Or maybe dolphins

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Speaker 1: are speaking, I mean, to one another, just not to us.

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Speaker 1: That doesn't make them less intelligent. So long, and thanks

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Speaker 1: for all the fish and we're not Yeah, that's a

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Speaker 1: good one, and we're not like anthropomorphizing here. Basically, there's

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Speaker 1: there is very little um point I guess. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: don't get it to comparing the two. There's tremendous point

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Speaker 1: to getting to cracking this code and understanding dolphin intellect

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Speaker 1: or bird intellect, degreed octopus intellect and human intellect. But

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Speaker 1: to compare them is it's an exercise and futility. There's

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Speaker 1: no point to it. I don't get it. Yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: compared dolphin A to dolphin B one, maybe smarter one

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Speaker 1: might have a little patchy mustache and hang out at

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Speaker 1: the gas station a lot. And that's not the smart one. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I think people do this to either. I think they're

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Speaker 1: trying to claim some either superiority of animals over humans

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Speaker 1: or humans over animals, right, And that's kind of that's

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Speaker 1: a big issue of these days, Like there there are

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Speaker 1: groups um animal rights groups that are trying to further

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Speaker 1: animal rights by getting them inalienable rights like humans have right,

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Speaker 1: which would really screw up the zoos system. Yeah, you

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Speaker 1: can look for a podcast on that too. We did. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that was a good one. I think we landed pretty

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Speaker 1: heavily against zoos. Yeah, we did. But to each their own.

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Speaker 1: But I haven't been to a zoo since then. What

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Speaker 1: is this Project Enigma? I thought that was pretty interesting.

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Speaker 1: It was another genetic thing, this um it was. It

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Speaker 1: was neat though in that like this Australian researchers said, Hey,

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Speaker 1: we have something called internet and m r I S

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Speaker 1: and willing participants, so everybody starts sending in your brain scans.

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Speaker 1: Is that who proved that the complexity of the neural

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Speaker 1: activity was the most important thing? Was that project? No,

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Speaker 1: that was a different one. That was there was a

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Speaker 1: New Scientist or no Scientific American article that um that

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Speaker 1: explored that idea as the the synaptic proteins that create

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Speaker 1: intellect or intelligence. But the Project Enigma basically found that

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Speaker 1: there is a single mutation on a specific gene where

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Speaker 1: if you have a C instead of T, I think

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Speaker 1: you um have a bigger brain. And they correlated that

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Speaker 1: to more intelligence. Yeah, but again using the i Q test. Well,

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Speaker 1: what I'm tired of are the studies that throw out

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Speaker 1: the results that don't make a fun headline, you know. Right,

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Speaker 1: There was this one um from Smithsonian magazine from December

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Speaker 1: of last year that uh, well they it wasn't from them,

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Speaker 1: was from the Proceedings of the Royal Society b and

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Speaker 1: Smithsonian reported on it. But it was a study of

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Speaker 1: country mice and city mice. Well a bunch of animals.

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Speaker 1: But they found that city mice and vol I don't

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Speaker 1: even know what that is, v l E. Prairie vols?

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Speaker 1: What is that? Like? They're very sweet. They they are

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Speaker 1: monogamous like a bowl eevil, No, that's a bug. A

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Speaker 1: bowl is like a like a prairie dog. You should

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Speaker 1: look up prairie balls. Very cute and the idea that

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Speaker 1: they're very sweetest, even better. You wouldn't like shoot one

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Speaker 1: for being on your property. No, I mean some people would,

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Speaker 1: but not good people. I know someone who does that

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Speaker 1: kind of thing, shoots at voles, not bowls, but woodchucks

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Speaker 1: with with the air rifles. That's not nice. He knows

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Speaker 1: who he is. Boom. But this study basically said that

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Speaker 1: city mice and city bowls had larger brains than country mice.

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Speaker 1: And of course that makes a big headline because people

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Speaker 1: are going to try and make the point that, you know,

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Speaker 1: people that live in urban environments are smarter and the

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Speaker 1: hillbillies out in the country are dumber. They study ten animals,

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Speaker 1: only two of them showed that, and some of them

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Speaker 1: showed the opposite that the I think bats and shrew's

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Speaker 1: actually the country versions had larger brains. So they don't

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Speaker 1: say any of that in the study because they just

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Speaker 1: want a headline that says, you know, if you live

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Speaker 1: in a city, you're smarter. Yeah, and we I mean

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Speaker 1: we've been addressing this lately, like there is like a

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Speaker 1: symbiotic collusion between bad science and bad science reporting, you know,

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Speaker 1: yeah that results and stuff like that, where it's just like,

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Speaker 1: you know, city city people are smarter than country people.

422
00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:07,520
Speaker 1: Says this one study that where the data was massaged. Well,

423
00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:10,240
Speaker 1: can you city person, can you go make butter with

424
00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:14,000
Speaker 1: your hands? I have to say, can you farm land? No?

425
00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:19,719
Speaker 1: Of course not um, but there it is possible that

426
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:25,320
Speaker 1: there's a basis to this. Whereas city people are, their

427
00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:29,399
Speaker 1: brains are more stimulated than country folk perhaps, and so

428
00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:33,240
Speaker 1: more neural connections, more plasticity takes place. I don't I

429
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:35,520
Speaker 1: don't think that's true. I think there's just as much

430
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:38,920
Speaker 1: stimulation in nature as there is in a city full

431
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:41,919
Speaker 1: of people. Spends once you're stimulated by I look at

432
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:44,480
Speaker 1: Dar when he spent his entire life living in the country. Yeah,

433
00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:47,320
Speaker 1: for sure, But I mean like we're also we also

434
00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:51,480
Speaker 1: have hundreds of thousands of years of latent inhibition built

435
00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:53,680
Speaker 1: up against a lot of the stuff in nature, whereas

436
00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:57,160
Speaker 1: the stuff in Times Square is relatively new, so our

437
00:26:57,160 --> 00:27:00,920
Speaker 1: brain isn't doesn't defend against it quite as easily. So

438
00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:04,159
Speaker 1: hence we're possibly more stimulated. I think it depends on

439
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:06,760
Speaker 1: what you're doing with your time. Sure, if you're out

440
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:10,520
Speaker 1: the country sitting around watching reality TV. If you're in

441
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:15,320
Speaker 1: your apartment watching reality TV. I found this other study

442
00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:19,679
Speaker 1: today to um from Germany about pornography may reduce your

443
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:24,920
Speaker 1: brain size. Another kind of sexy headline, right and um

444
00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:29,320
Speaker 1: sample size at three And it's always self reported to

445
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:32,399
Speaker 1: and when you're dealing with porn and self reporting, do

446
00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 1: you look at check the box? Do you think your

447
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:39,479
Speaker 1: brain is small? Check the boom? Yeah? How smart are you?

448
00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:42,920
Speaker 1: Somebody called the Uh they cannot say that watching porn

449
00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 1: caused a decrease in brain matter, but they did say

450
00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:49,480
Speaker 1: they found that the volume of striatom, a brain region

451
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:53,920
Speaker 1: that's been associated with reward processing and motivated behavior, was

452
00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:59,280
Speaker 1: smaller the more pornography you consumed. And basically where they're

453
00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:02,439
Speaker 1: at is we don't know whether it's causing this or

454
00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:05,879
Speaker 1: if people did. Oh yeah, they gets struck dumb and

455
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:09,200
Speaker 1: they're like, yeah, they're just end up watching porn more

456
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:14,840
Speaker 1: like in Idiocracy again that movie. There's probably been no

457
00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:18,120
Speaker 1: other movie that's made more of a legitimate appearance in

458
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:23,080
Speaker 1: our episodes than that MOVIECCY, Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. Yeah,

459
00:28:23,119 --> 00:28:26,359
Speaker 1: my judge, he's onto something. Do you watch Silicon Valley?

460
00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:30,800
Speaker 1: I haven't I know. Uh, Kamal nan Giani's in it. Yeah,

461
00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:33,560
Speaker 1: he's funny. Does he do well? Yeah, Martin Starr, it's

462
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:36,280
Speaker 1: uh yeah, it's a good show. Nice, it's I think

463
00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:38,000
Speaker 1: it was high time that someone took on the tech

464
00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:41,240
Speaker 1: industry and like a comedy like that. Yeah, leave it

465
00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:45,560
Speaker 1: to Mike Judge. I know if there's any crusader crusader

466
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:51,480
Speaker 1: people feeling good about, right, Yeah, it's Judge. Uh. If

467
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:55,920
Speaker 1: you want to know more about brain size in relation

468
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:59,920
Speaker 1: to whatever, just type in brain in the search part house.

469
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,959
Speaker 1: So first dot com and it's get lost. That's what

470
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:06,360
Speaker 1: I say. Type in brain and just go on a trip. Man.

471
00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:11,160
Speaker 1: All right, that's right. Journey. I think that's the slogan

472
00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 1: for how stuff works. That's right, um answers, I said,

473
00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:17,760
Speaker 1: search far as the time for what? Listener mail? Yes, okay,

474
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:22,600
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this help for a fan in need.

475
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:25,360
Speaker 1: It's hey, guys, I want some help please. My wife

476
00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:27,400
Speaker 1: and I are expecting our first kid this summer, and

477
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:29,760
Speaker 1: thirteen days ago we also found out that my wife

478
00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 1: has staged four breast cancer. So we are spending our

479
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:37,040
Speaker 1: third trimester getting chemo. My goodness, I know, Uh, We're

480
00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 1: gonna kick cancer in the butt, we have no doubt,

481
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:42,440
Speaker 1: but we're scared and overwhelmed. Obviously, we're doing chemo now.

482
00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 1: Then we'll have the baby get more chemo than bilateral

483
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:49,000
Speaker 1: mastectomy than radiation. We have great doctors and great fins

484
00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:51,080
Speaker 1: and families. So even in the face of this, we

485
00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:53,920
Speaker 1: feel very lucky. Uh. And by the way, I gotta

486
00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:59,160
Speaker 1: follow up more recently. That says, uh, there is no

487
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:02,720
Speaker 1: gestational ibtes and the cancer is already shrinking. Oh, it's great.

488
00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:04,840
Speaker 1: So thanks are going great so far. Thanks for keeping

489
00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:06,840
Speaker 1: us in suspense. I know I was gonna wait till

490
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:09,120
Speaker 1: the end. Uh. And he asked for a couple of favors.

491
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 1: He said, First of all, if you want to follow

492
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:13,560
Speaker 1: and promote my tumbler, uh to keep people updated, it

493
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:18,040
Speaker 1: is um h T t P colon slash slash gala

494
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:23,080
Speaker 1: freaki diky g A l l i U f r

495
00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:25,760
Speaker 1: e k y d e e k y dot tumbler

496
00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:29,560
Speaker 1: dot com. He says, we're huge nerds and doctor who fans.

497
00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:32,360
Speaker 1: So that was lost on me some doctor who reference,

498
00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:34,280
Speaker 1: I guess apparently, so does that have to do with

499
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:36,760
Speaker 1: the phone booth. Maybe that's the only thing you know

500
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:40,920
Speaker 1: about same here. Um. Secondly, I'm biking a hundred and

501
00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:44,360
Speaker 1: fifty miles to raise money, and could you plug that?

502
00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:46,960
Speaker 1: And you can go to g O O dot g

503
00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:52,800
Speaker 1: L slash two w j z x Q. People don't

504
00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 1: like normal words, well that's one of those shortened U

505
00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:58,960
Speaker 1: R l oh. I see it's a google. Uh. And

506
00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:00,680
Speaker 1: then third, how about a shout out. I think that's

507
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:02,800
Speaker 1: what we're doing here. My wife is a little shy,

508
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:08,560
Speaker 1: so just use her nickname the mayor. That's hilarious. Whereas

509
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:11,520
Speaker 1: a sash during chemo and childbirth. I guess, so, I mean,

510
00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:13,960
Speaker 1: I call Emily the boss, so I guess it's the mayor.

511
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:17,600
Speaker 1: But the mayor is like the boss of several bosses,

512
00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:19,880
Speaker 1: I would guess. Yeah. We used to call my friend

513
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:22,440
Speaker 1: Justin who you know, the mayor of Atlanta, because everywhere

514
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:25,720
Speaker 1: he went nobody knew him. He's a fellow. But now

515
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:28,040
Speaker 1: we just call him the manager of Atlanta because everywhere

516
00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:30,760
Speaker 1: you go he has some improvement to that place, like

517
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:32,560
Speaker 1: the lighting is not quite right, or the door should

518
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:38,280
Speaker 1: be over there, the kitchen is not located properly Brits Yeah. Uh.

519
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:40,920
Speaker 1: And then forth, my wife works in public policy, specifically

520
00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:43,720
Speaker 1: helping women and families get themselves out of poverty and

521
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 1: advocating for low income workers. So there you have it.

522
00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:49,880
Speaker 1: An awesome an incredible woman who dedicates her considerable talents

523
00:31:50,160 --> 00:31:53,239
Speaker 1: helping others. He's pregnant and his breast cancer. Kind of

524
00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:55,520
Speaker 1: hard to say no, right, I'm not above guilt tripping.

525
00:31:56,360 --> 00:32:01,040
Speaker 1: So Bob from Swithmore, Pennsylvania. UM, there you go. People

526
00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:02,840
Speaker 1: should go and check out that stuff and support your

527
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:05,720
Speaker 1: bike ride. And I hope things have continued to progress

528
00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:09,800
Speaker 1: well for your wife and child and keep us updated. Yeah,

529
00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:12,680
Speaker 1: and you keep me updated at the very least. If

530
00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,600
Speaker 1: not everybody listening, I will. Okay, thanks a lot, Bob

531
00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:20,760
Speaker 1: and the mayor, good luck to you both. And um,

532
00:32:20,840 --> 00:32:22,520
Speaker 1: let's see if you want to get in touch with us,

533
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:28,000
Speaker 1: whether you're a mayor a provincial governor who knows, you

534
00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:30,600
Speaker 1: can get in touch with us on Twitter at s

535
00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:33,760
Speaker 1: Y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook

536
00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:36,120
Speaker 1: dot com slash stuff you Should Know. You can send

537
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:39,320
Speaker 1: us an email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff Works

538
00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:42,280
Speaker 1: dot com and join us at our home on the web,

539
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:49,800
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more on this

540
00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:52,480
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff Works

541
00:32:52,480 --> 00:33:00,000
Speaker 1: dot com