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. 2020 Jan 9:13:101.
doi: 10.3389/fnana.2019.00101. eCollection 2019.

Neuro-hormonal Regulation Is a Better Indicator of Human Cognitive Abilities Than Brain Anatomy: The Need for a New Paradigm

Arthur Saniotis  1   2 , James P Grantham  2   3 , Jaliya Kumaratilake  2 , Maciej Henneberg  2   3
Affiliations

Neuro-hormonal Regulation Is a Better Indicator of Human Cognitive Abilities Than Brain Anatomy: The Need for a New Paradigm

Arthur Saniotis et al. Front Neuroanat. .

Abstract

Human intelligence has been theorized since the ancient Greeks. Plato and Aristotle incorporated theories of human intelligence into their metaphysical and cosmological theories which informed the social and medical sciences for centuries. With the advent of the 20th century, human intelligence became increasingly standardized based on Intelligence Quotients (IQ). Moreover, multiple theories of human intelligence were posited on morphological features of the human brain, focusing on cranial volume and size of the pre-frontal cortex which was suggestive of superior human cognitive abilities. This article argues that fixation with anatomical features of the brain was tended to ignore the importance of neuro-hormonal regulation which is a more appropriate indicator of human cognitive abilities. The article challenges the correlation between brain size and human cognitive abilities while offering an alternate theory of human cognitive abilities which emphasizes the roles of neurotransmitters, neurotrophins, and enteric gut microbiome (EGM) regulation.

Keywords: brain size evolution; dopamine; enteric gut microbiome; intelligence quotient (IQ); neurotrophin; serotoinin.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Reduction of braincase volume in the last 10,000 years in Europe (including Mediterranean) and in Subsaharan Africa. Data from Henneberg (1988) and Henneberg and Steyn (1993).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Body weight to brain ratio in various animal species.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Indication of increase of dopamine (DA) levels in hominins over 5 Ma till present. Data from Previc (2009).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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