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AMPLIFYING THE LINE. “The significance of the difference in scaling rules for building brains with large numbers of neurons becomes even more obvious if one considers the expected number of neurons for a generic rodent brain of human-sized proportions.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2776484/ View in LinkedIn

MORE NUMBERS. “Likewise, the capuchin monkey brain has more than twice the number of neurons of the larger-brained capybara (3.7 billion against 1.6 billion), and also about four times more neurons in the cerebral cortex (1.1 billion against 0.3).” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2776484/ View in LinkedIn

DEATH OF EXCEPTIONALISM. “One consequence of this realization is that sheer size alone, or in relation to body size, is not an adequate parameter to qualify, or disqualify, the human brain as “special”.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2776484/ View in LinkedIn

NAIL IN THE PROVERBIAL. “The different cellular scaling rules that apply to rodents and primates strongly indicate that it is not valid to use brain size as a proxy for number of neurons across humans, whales, elephants and other large-brained species belonging to different mammalian orders.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2776484/ View in LinkedIn

CONTROVERSIAL. "Visual perceptual learning (VPL) is defined as visual performance improvement after visual experiences. VPL is often highly specific for a visual feature presented during training. However, results of neurophysiological studies have been highly controversial concerning whether the plasticity underlying VPL occurs within the visual cortex." (T. Watanabe et al.). https://lnkd.in/dGMAxbU View in LinkedIn

BODY SIZE ERROR. “This raises the possibility that mass and body mass across species are only correlated, rather than brain mass being determined by body mass, as presumed in studies that focus on the variation of residuals after regression onto body size.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2776484/ View in LinkedIn

POWERFUL TRAINING. "The induced activation caused VPL specific to the orientation. These results suggest that early visual areas are so plastic that mere inductions of activity patterns are sufficient to cause VPL. This technique can induce plasticity in a highly selective manner, potentially leading to powerful training and rehabilitative protocols." (T. Watanabe et al.) (Visual perceptual learning, VPL) http://science.sciencemag.org/content/334/6061/1413 View in LinkedIn

MIND BODY DICOTOMY. “In view of the discrepant relationship between body and brain size in humans, great apes, and non-anthropoid primates, these findings suggest that the rules that apply to scaling primate brains are much more conserved than those that apply to scaling the body.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2776484/ View in LinkedIn

VISUAL PERCEPTUAL LEARNING. "With an online-feedback method that uses decoded functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals, we induced activity patterns only in early visual cortex corresponding to an orientation without stimulus presentation or participants’ awareness of what was to be learned." (T. Watanabe et al. ). https://lnkd.in/dRQCW-9 View in LinkedIn