full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Suzana Herculano-Houzel: What is so special about the human brain?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

But let's play along. If all brains were made the same way and you were to cpaomre animals with brains of different sizes, larger brains should always have more neurons than smaller brains, and the larger the brain, the more cognitively able its owner should be. So the largest biran around should also be the most cotilneigvy able. And here comes the bad news: Our brain, not the largest one around. It seems quite vexing. Our brain weighs between 1.2 and 1.5 kilos, but elephant brains weigh between four and five kilos, and whale branis can weigh up to nine kilos, which is why scientists used to resort to saying that our brain must be special to explain our cntoivige abeiiilts. It must be really extraordinary, an exception to the rule. Theirs may be bigger, but ours is better, and it could be better, for example, in that it seems larger than it should be, with a much larger cerebral cortex than we should have for the size of our bodies. So that would give us etxra cortex to do more interesting things than just oraenitpg the body. That's because the size of the brain usually follows the size of the body. So the main reason for saying that our brain is laergr than it should be actually comes from comparing ourselves to great apes. gllorais can be two to three times larger than we are, so their brains should also be larger than ours, but instead it's the other way around. Our brain is three times larger than a gorilla brain.

Open Cloze

But let's play along. If all brains were made the same way and you were to _______ animals with brains of different sizes, larger brains should always have more neurons than smaller brains, and the larger the brain, the more cognitively able its owner should be. So the largest _____ around should also be the most ___________ able. And here comes the bad news: Our brain, not the largest one around. It seems quite vexing. Our brain weighs between 1.2 and 1.5 kilos, but elephant brains weigh between four and five kilos, and whale ______ can weigh up to nine kilos, which is why scientists used to resort to saying that our brain must be special to explain our _________ _________. It must be really extraordinary, an exception to the rule. Theirs may be bigger, but ours is better, and it could be better, for example, in that it seems larger than it should be, with a much larger cerebral cortex than we should have for the size of our bodies. So that would give us _____ cortex to do more interesting things than just _________ the body. That's because the size of the brain usually follows the size of the body. So the main reason for saying that our brain is ______ than it should be actually comes from comparing ourselves to great apes. ________ can be two to three times larger than we are, so their brains should also be larger than ours, but instead it's the other way around. Our brain is three times larger than a gorilla brain.

Solution

  1. extra
  2. larger
  3. brains
  4. cognitively
  5. brain
  6. abilities
  7. cognitive
  8. gorillas
  9. compare
  10. operating

Original Text

But let's play along. If all brains were made the same way and you were to compare animals with brains of different sizes, larger brains should always have more neurons than smaller brains, and the larger the brain, the more cognitively able its owner should be. So the largest brain around should also be the most cognitively able. And here comes the bad news: Our brain, not the largest one around. It seems quite vexing. Our brain weighs between 1.2 and 1.5 kilos, but elephant brains weigh between four and five kilos, and whale brains can weigh up to nine kilos, which is why scientists used to resort to saying that our brain must be special to explain our cognitive abilities. It must be really extraordinary, an exception to the rule. Theirs may be bigger, but ours is better, and it could be better, for example, in that it seems larger than it should be, with a much larger cerebral cortex than we should have for the size of our bodies. So that would give us extra cortex to do more interesting things than just operating the body. That's because the size of the brain usually follows the size of the body. So the main reason for saying that our brain is larger than it should be actually comes from comparing ourselves to great apes. Gorillas can be two to three times larger than we are, so their brains should also be larger than ours, but instead it's the other way around. Our brain is three times larger than a gorilla brain.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
human brain 13
billion neurons 6
cognitive abilities 4
cerebral cortex 3
primate brain 3
rodent brain 3
brain costs 3
body size 3
scientists thought 2
great apes 2
times larger 2
large brain 2
primate brains 2
simplest explanation 2
remarkable cognitive 2
large body 2
large number 2
largest number 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
remarkable cognitive abilities 2
human brain costs 2

Important Words

  1. abilities
  2. animals
  3. apes
  4. bad
  5. bigger
  6. bodies
  7. body
  8. brain
  9. brains
  10. cerebral
  11. cognitive
  12. cognitively
  13. compare
  14. comparing
  15. cortex
  16. elephant
  17. exception
  18. explain
  19. extra
  20. extraordinary
  21. give
  22. gorilla
  23. gorillas
  24. great
  25. interesting
  26. kilos
  27. larger
  28. largest
  29. main
  30. neurons
  31. operating
  32. owner
  33. play
  34. reason
  35. resort
  36. rule
  37. scientists
  38. size
  39. sizes
  40. smaller
  41. special
  42. times
  43. vexing
  44. weigh
  45. weighs
  46. whale