during my childhood I was trying to find
my family because whenever I saw
whatever mechanical object I have to
open it look inside try to figure out
the mechanism behind the function table
Krakow after in my favorite victims once
I grew up I realized that table clock
were not that much interesting and for
this reason I feel shifted my attention
to in different processes so during
the study of maker in dill my career as
a neuroscientist I always try to combine
the study of anatomical basis of the
brain function for some organs it’s very
easy to identify which the function is
ever look to tease a cute dog do you
expect him to run without prosthetic
legs I bet you don’t because you realize
no structure no function but what’s
about the brain what’s the function of
the brain so it’s easy to say that the
function the most peculiar function of
the brain is mind if we can fall in love
read a book get wrong a right decision
it’s just because we have anatomical
structure in the brain which are working
for it now we can study anatomical
structure by the means of at least two
different levels we can study T’s by the
mean of macroscopic scale that is
everything you can see with your own
eyes it’s brain size gross anatomy
feature on the other end we can approach
the study of the anatomy by the mean of
microscopic scale in which we will
underline the cells which are in the
tissue in this case principally neurons
and the connection between neurons which
are called sinuses now if you want to
indicate
one which is very smart you call him our
brain so you once a big brain you are
using macroscopic scale macroscopic
approach now if a whether the
macroscopic scale can justify the
different level of intelligence that are
in the mammals for instance will be the
topic of the talk of today now let’s
have a look two different mammals brains
here so you will be probably surprised
by the fact that a giraffe has a big
brain as big as the human one
but you will be probably more surprised
to see that she mammals brain at least
are missing here in particular we will
see that if the human brain is around
1.5 1.8 kilos the elephant one is up to
6 kilos and the sperm whale is up to 9
kilos
well that’s huge we said that structure
will cause a function so bigger brain
probably bigger intellectual
capabilities but how many sperm whale
giraffe or elephant have you seen giving
TED talk discussing human brains
dimension probably few right I hope at
least and the reason is because
someone’s to say well don’t try to be
funny because it’s true that they have a
big brain but they are also a huge body
so for this reason scientists propose
the brain to body weight ratio and now
things start work the brain in humans is
about the 2% of the total being a total
body weight the elephant want is utterly
smaller because it’s 0.5%
and the sperm whale is just 0.02% this
is even more evident when we ever look
to the instance in cyclization quotient
which means how the brain the dimension
of the brain is in relation to what a
specter for that given body size so you
must have a brain which is eight times
bigger than expected and the hellephant
a brain which is half size and a specter
for the bodyweight sperm whale has
ninety percent lighter brain than
expected so now things start work we can
say well it’s true that we have on a
macroscopic scale or relative relatively
to body is true that can account for the
differences in cognition but what’s
about when we are not talking as we have
done until now on animals which have
different order of magnitude in the body
weight what happens when we are talking
about humans interspecies well if we
have a look to the body weight of a lord
byron or oliver cromwell we can think
that yes intellectual people can be with
brainy with a bigger brain 2.2 2.3 but
it’s something is challenging this
concept when we discover that two noble
arrow is in the 9021 the Albert Einstein
and Anatole France got half size brain
at a Lord Byron you can be a noble
arrayed with Hal sized brain turn
another man not bad and but can we say
that Lord Byron is twice intelligent
than Albert Einstein of course not
and what’s about when you discover that
Neanderthals as a bigger bear brain 10
on sapiens it’s almost 100 grams more
than almost happens
so it’s now clear and evident that the
macroscopic scale cannot account for
differences in intelligence in humans if
so we have to shift from macroscopic
scale to microscopic scale and to go
deeper in this topic I need an example
from a French colleagues in 2007 that we
will see later on now the fact that
macroscopic scale is not sufficient to
justify intelligence is something that
we can discuss today but more than one
century ago it was not that clear
actually
in 1796 German physician Franz Josef gal
proposed a theory called phrenology in
which he proposed that brain size skull
size will be in direct correlation with
the intellectual capabilities well first
I’ll say that women are inferior to men
just because we have a lighter brain
unfortunately was too late for him to
discover post mortem of course that his
own brain was just one point one nine
eight grams much less than many women so
actually he was right the female brain
is smaller than the male one is around
temper about ten percent lighter but if
in the past he was justifying a
superiority inferiority in intelligence
skills its nowaday on agreement on
neuroscientists of cognitive
neuroscientist that male and female will
have just different type intelligence if
it’s
to that male do excel in a special
perception in 3d reconstruction of
complex orbit objects in the space and
they are performing back better in
working memory it’s also true that women
do have a better verbal task capability
they do excel in fine motor coordination
and they are much better at driving
retrieving long term memory
items that’s probably why they always
remember anniversary.i we don’t it’s not
our fault it’s just our brain so as I
said you in advance in order to
understand really how the macroscopic
scale can afford the cognitive
capabilities we needed to go back to a
case report this is a 44 year old man
admitted the two MRI for headache was
surprising medical doctor because as you
can see here the cerebral very a
cerebral spinal fluid that is inside
cavities in the brain was enlarged there
was a lot of fluid in the brain and the
cortex and the cerebral tissue was very
tiny actually it was expected forever
brain of 400 grams how it is possible
how is it possible that this man T
subject was in any case with a quite
average intelligence he was working in a
tax office he was married with two
children to understand how it’s possible
we have to look how the brain is
developing so let’s get an example from
the botanic world if you have a tree and
you want make it more fruitful you need
to prune it when you prune he will
become most more fruitful and what’s
about the brain is the same
we always think that we need more
neurons or more sinuses but acted
actually is the opposite we reach the
plateau of the number of neurons at 18
months 100 the billions but then we are
losing at least 30 40 up to 50% of them
during lifetime but we are not becoming
less intelligent actually and what’s
about sinuses
well actually the plateau of synapse is
reached at ten years but for the onset
of the puberty we already have lost 40%
of them we should consider that in the
number of neurons and the number of
synapses is larger than optimal at the
beginning we need a bigger number and
then we need a pruning process which is
making a fine-tuning of the brain of the
brain who is making these fine-tuning
the environment where the brain is
interacting with now coming back to our
subject French subject how is it
possible that he has just 75 less mass
brain and he is quite average
intelligent it’s because the survival
neurons were still inside working
circuitry they perfectly know to which
other neuron talk and what to say
because they were fine-tuned during life
this process is a continuous process I
will make you an example what can you
okay it’s a cow and now will you succeed
not to see any longer the cow you’re
laughing
that means no I cannot while you cannot
because I change your brain with a cow
and I’m sorry to say I did not make it
bigger but I just made a fine-tuning of
the existing synopsis this is what we
are doing we change continuously our
brain but not in size not at macroscopic
coming back to the difference between
male and female well we say that the
male have bigger brain but what about a
microscopic level at macroscopic level
we see that today ever we have more
neurons in the cortex than female and
each neuron have more synapses but now
we learned that TV is not meaning that
it’s a better brain but it’s just a less
refined brain or refined in another way
so the two different brains are good
brains for what they should do in the
environment and they are shaped now I
think that now it’s much easier for you
to understand that the differences in
brain size also in ethnic group doesn’t
mean anything the fact that Coco Chien
has a bigger brain than other ethnic
group it doesn’t mean at all that they
are or we are more intelligent because
we have seen now that intelligence is
based on macro microscopic level so
sinuses again I want to conclude with
this is my brain I want to share my
brain it’s pretty big unfortunately
because it’s like Neanderthal and as you
can see how you have a pretty big I
become
our company is required for spatial
navigation well I get lost in my
hometown so again there is no
correlation at all with the function so
summarizing my take-home message is that
macroscopic scale does not account at
all with intelligence we cannot do
anything to change the shape the size of
our brain but never mind it’s enough to
do with intelligence what we can do is
just interact continuously with the
environment to challenge our brain our
synapses with interesting discussion
attending Tech Talk or getting watching
a movie or whatever interacting with
environment so keep on shaping your and
our brain Thanks [Applause]
my family because whenever I saw
whatever mechanical object I have to
open it look inside try to figure out
the mechanism behind the function table
Krakow after in my favorite victims once
I grew up I realized that table clock
were not that much interesting and for
this reason I feel shifted my attention
to in different processes so during
the study of maker in dill my career as
a neuroscientist I always try to combine
the study of anatomical basis of the
brain function for some organs it’s very
easy to identify which the function is
ever look to tease a cute dog do you
expect him to run without prosthetic
legs I bet you don’t because you realize
no structure no function but what’s
about the brain what’s the function of
the brain so it’s easy to say that the
function the most peculiar function of
the brain is mind if we can fall in love
read a book get wrong a right decision
it’s just because we have anatomical
structure in the brain which are working
for it now we can study anatomical
structure by the means of at least two
different levels we can study T’s by the
mean of macroscopic scale that is
everything you can see with your own
eyes it’s brain size gross anatomy
feature on the other end we can approach
the study of the anatomy by the mean of
microscopic scale in which we will
underline the cells which are in the
tissue in this case principally neurons
and the connection between neurons which
are called sinuses now if you want to
indicate
one which is very smart you call him our
brain so you once a big brain you are
using macroscopic scale macroscopic
approach now if a whether the
macroscopic scale can justify the
different level of intelligence that are
in the mammals for instance will be the
topic of the talk of today now let’s
have a look two different mammals brains
here so you will be probably surprised
by the fact that a giraffe has a big
brain as big as the human one
but you will be probably more surprised
to see that she mammals brain at least
are missing here in particular we will
see that if the human brain is around
1.5 1.8 kilos the elephant one is up to
6 kilos and the sperm whale is up to 9
kilos
well that’s huge we said that structure
will cause a function so bigger brain
probably bigger intellectual
capabilities but how many sperm whale
giraffe or elephant have you seen giving
TED talk discussing human brains
dimension probably few right I hope at
least and the reason is because
someone’s to say well don’t try to be
funny because it’s true that they have a
big brain but they are also a huge body
so for this reason scientists propose
the brain to body weight ratio and now
things start work the brain in humans is
about the 2% of the total being a total
body weight the elephant want is utterly
smaller because it’s 0.5%
and the sperm whale is just 0.02% this
is even more evident when we ever look
to the instance in cyclization quotient
which means how the brain the dimension
of the brain is in relation to what a
specter for that given body size so you
must have a brain which is eight times
bigger than expected and the hellephant
a brain which is half size and a specter
for the bodyweight sperm whale has
ninety percent lighter brain than
expected so now things start work we can
say well it’s true that we have on a
macroscopic scale or relative relatively
to body is true that can account for the
differences in cognition but what’s
about when we are not talking as we have
done until now on animals which have
different order of magnitude in the body
weight what happens when we are talking
about humans interspecies well if we
have a look to the body weight of a lord
byron or oliver cromwell we can think
that yes intellectual people can be with
brainy with a bigger brain 2.2 2.3 but
it’s something is challenging this
concept when we discover that two noble
arrow is in the 9021 the Albert Einstein
and Anatole France got half size brain
at a Lord Byron you can be a noble
arrayed with Hal sized brain turn
another man not bad and but can we say
that Lord Byron is twice intelligent
than Albert Einstein of course not
and what’s about when you discover that
Neanderthals as a bigger bear brain 10
on sapiens it’s almost 100 grams more
than almost happens
so it’s now clear and evident that the
macroscopic scale cannot account for
differences in intelligence in humans if
so we have to shift from macroscopic
scale to microscopic scale and to go
deeper in this topic I need an example
from a French colleagues in 2007 that we
will see later on now the fact that
macroscopic scale is not sufficient to
justify intelligence is something that
we can discuss today but more than one
century ago it was not that clear
actually
in 1796 German physician Franz Josef gal
proposed a theory called phrenology in
which he proposed that brain size skull
size will be in direct correlation with
the intellectual capabilities well first
I’ll say that women are inferior to men
just because we have a lighter brain
unfortunately was too late for him to
discover post mortem of course that his
own brain was just one point one nine
eight grams much less than many women so
actually he was right the female brain
is smaller than the male one is around
temper about ten percent lighter but if
in the past he was justifying a
superiority inferiority in intelligence
skills its nowaday on agreement on
neuroscientists of cognitive
neuroscientist that male and female will
have just different type intelligence if
it’s
to that male do excel in a special
perception in 3d reconstruction of
complex orbit objects in the space and
they are performing back better in
working memory it’s also true that women
do have a better verbal task capability
they do excel in fine motor coordination
and they are much better at driving
retrieving long term memory
items that’s probably why they always
remember anniversary.i we don’t it’s not
our fault it’s just our brain so as I
said you in advance in order to
understand really how the macroscopic
scale can afford the cognitive
capabilities we needed to go back to a
case report this is a 44 year old man
admitted the two MRI for headache was
surprising medical doctor because as you
can see here the cerebral very a
cerebral spinal fluid that is inside
cavities in the brain was enlarged there
was a lot of fluid in the brain and the
cortex and the cerebral tissue was very
tiny actually it was expected forever
brain of 400 grams how it is possible
how is it possible that this man T
subject was in any case with a quite
average intelligence he was working in a
tax office he was married with two
children to understand how it’s possible
we have to look how the brain is
developing so let’s get an example from
the botanic world if you have a tree and
you want make it more fruitful you need
to prune it when you prune he will
become most more fruitful and what’s
about the brain is the same
we always think that we need more
neurons or more sinuses but acted
actually is the opposite we reach the
plateau of the number of neurons at 18
months 100 the billions but then we are
losing at least 30 40 up to 50% of them
during lifetime but we are not becoming
less intelligent actually and what’s
about sinuses
well actually the plateau of synapse is
reached at ten years but for the onset
of the puberty we already have lost 40%
of them we should consider that in the
number of neurons and the number of
synapses is larger than optimal at the
beginning we need a bigger number and
then we need a pruning process which is
making a fine-tuning of the brain of the
brain who is making these fine-tuning
the environment where the brain is
interacting with now coming back to our
subject French subject how is it
possible that he has just 75 less mass
brain and he is quite average
intelligent it’s because the survival
neurons were still inside working
circuitry they perfectly know to which
other neuron talk and what to say
because they were fine-tuned during life
this process is a continuous process I
will make you an example what can you
okay it’s a cow and now will you succeed
not to see any longer the cow you’re
laughing
that means no I cannot while you cannot
because I change your brain with a cow
and I’m sorry to say I did not make it
bigger but I just made a fine-tuning of
the existing synopsis this is what we
are doing we change continuously our
brain but not in size not at macroscopic
coming back to the difference between
male and female well we say that the
male have bigger brain but what about a
microscopic level at macroscopic level
we see that today ever we have more
neurons in the cortex than female and
each neuron have more synapses but now
we learned that TV is not meaning that
it’s a better brain but it’s just a less
refined brain or refined in another way
so the two different brains are good
brains for what they should do in the
environment and they are shaped now I
think that now it’s much easier for you
to understand that the differences in
brain size also in ethnic group doesn’t
mean anything the fact that Coco Chien
has a bigger brain than other ethnic
group it doesn’t mean at all that they
are or we are more intelligent because
we have seen now that intelligence is
based on macro microscopic level so
sinuses again I want to conclude with
this is my brain I want to share my
brain it’s pretty big unfortunately
because it’s like Neanderthal and as you
can see how you have a pretty big I
become
our company is required for spatial
navigation well I get lost in my
hometown so again there is no
correlation at all with the function so
summarizing my take-home message is that
macroscopic scale does not account at
all with intelligence we cannot do
anything to change the shape the size of
our brain but never mind it’s enough to
do with intelligence what we can do is
just interact continuously with the
environment to challenge our brain our
synapses with interesting discussion
attending Tech Talk or getting watching
a movie or whatever interacting with
environment so keep on shaping your and
our brain Thanks [Applause]
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