small/short people, dwarfs have sometimes small heads, homo floresiensis was small, birds have very small heads but prooven denser brain structure. science is "surprised" for example that floresiensis (hobbit) made tools but i can't find any source (as well as personal experience) that small people with small heads are less intelligent. Also, we know that domestication if animals reduces their brain volume and it is thought to be connected with aggressivity and general defence of tweritory or dominance. Also we have some people apparently functioning totally normal with half a brain.
my question is, aren't we still totally misinterpreting size with function? Is that already somewhere in literature? I mean just that aspect of volume, density and mental capacity?
The biggest predictor of intelligence in the animal kingdom is the surface area of brain tissue, not size. You get more surface area by having more folds and bumps (sulci and gyri) on your brain.
Brains are made of neurons and neurons are organized into two types of brain tissue - gray and white matter. Gray matter is where the cell bodies are located, and white matter is where all their connections (axons) are located. Gray matter tends to be found on the surface of all these sulci and gyri, while white matter is located underneath this layer. More surface area = more efficiently connected brain cells.
I don't know of any literature looking at human intelligence related to folds and bumps, but that's not what I studied in graduate school. You have to be careful when looking at the older literature on intelligence because it was fairly prejudiced and designed to prove old ideas of race theory.
thanks a lot for your contribution and further framing the question. still if you look at floresiensis or the actor who played mini me, what is your guess. sorry for putting it that bluntly but i guess you understand my pure curiosity and brain pain. :))
There are types of dwarfism that can lead to mental impairment, but not all. Calling on a personal anecdote, I work in a highly technical field, with two colleagues who are little people. I know one of them holds a PhD.
There are correlations between height and intelligence, but being tall doesn't make you smart, it just means you have access to good nutrients that make you both tall and smart. Human ancestors had different diets - once we figured out how to control fire, use tools, amd farm, our caloric intake practically exploded. Evolution then took over, and now our brains consume something like 20% of our daily caloric intake. So, feed your brain and stay curious!