Does a bigger head at birth means a "head start"? A recent study has shown that the bigger a baby's head at birth, the more intelligent he or she turns out to be! Now, that could really mean 2 things:- We could actually evolve into a species with a gigantic head and a small body(since we use our brains more).
- Since a baby’s head size is linked to intelligence, it will have been naturally limited by the difficulty of childbirth. Hence, Cesarean births will be more common.
In the latest issue of Paediatrics there is a study that plots the head size of more than 600 babies, at birth and regular intervals thereafter, against IQ. The findings are startling. The bigger a baby’s head at birth, the more intelligent he or she turns out to be. An even better predictor of later intelligence was how much a baby’s head grew before the age of one.
Late pregnancy and early infancy are the best growing seasons for brains: after that, growth slows down drastically. British researchers are now redirecting their efforts on how best to help a baby’s head grow, as if it were a prize marrow.
When we imagine the classic (super-intelligent) alien, it has a gigantic head. Could we eventually evolve into something like that?
Click on the link below to read the full article.
Link: TimesOnline
Image: Webel Photography
Tags: Babies | Big Head | IQ
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