Guild Wars 2

Okay so this little asura girl said that humans and norn have the smallest body mass to brain size index. That makes little to no sense. Charr would need a slightly brigger brain if they wanted human tier sentience combined with the nervous system administration to run their body, but that should still result in a lower net brain to body mass size given their muscular mass compared to humans.

Because every race’s brains have to function in the exact same manner. /sarcasm.

duster.7013:

Okay so this little asura girl said…..

I’d write this off as general asuran thinking. My charr would have some choice words for that little rat,, maybe a fist or two as well….

For good measure, let’s add the actual theory:

A bold New Theory:
Cepha: An exhaustive study of Tyrian physiognomy led me to derive what I call Cepha’s Constant.
Cepha: Multiplied by the mean ratio of body mass to brain size, it yields an important racial metric.
Cepha: Namely, said race’s importance as a factor in the Eternal Alchemy.
Cepha: Asura scored highest, naturally. Then, in descending order, we have sylvari, charr, human, and norn.

Brain size is, generally speaking, not an indicator of intelligence. Whales and Elephants have bigger brains than humans, yet it is largely accepted humans are smarter (With a few exceptions).

Rhaegar.1203:

Brain size is, generally speaking, not an indicator of intelligence. Whales and Elephants have bigger brains than humans, yet it is largely accepted humans are smarter (With a few exceptions).

Adding to this, the surface of a brain is an indicator to how developed it is. That’s why a human brain has so many “wrinkles” (probably not the right technical term, sorry), allowing it to have more surface area on a smaller room. Though even then I wouldn’t say that there is a direct relation between surface area and intelligence. In other words, even if your brain is more wrinkly when mine doesn’t necessarily mean you are smarter than me.

Rhaegar.1203:

Brain size is, generally speaking, not an indicator of intelligence. Whales and Elephants have bigger brains than humans, yet it is largely accepted humans are smarter (With a few exceptions).

Do note that this is not about brain size itself but on the ratio between brain size and body mass. I don’t how whales and elephants compare to humans in that regard.

Adding to this, the surface of a brain is an indicator to how developed it is. That’s why a human brain has so many “wrinkles” (probably not the right technical term, sorry), allowing it to have more surface area on a smaller room. Though even then I wouldn’t say that there is a direct relation between surface area and intelligence. In other words, even if your brain is more wrinkly when mine doesn’t necessarily mean you are smarter than me.

The wrinkle-thing you are talking about is the fractal-like nature of brains. Several other biological (and non-biological) phenomena have this characteristic. Scholars like the mathematician Geoffrey West have written quite a bit about the relationship between fractals and scaling (scaling here means the relationship between changes of a characteristic of a system on the one hand and changes of the size of the system on the other hand).

However, again, note that the brain size is here related to body mass. Thus you could counter that what should be measured is the ratio between surface area (properly measured as taking account of the wrinkles) and body mass.

Edit:
Something I found was this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-to-body_mass_ratio. However, that is about the ratio between brain mass and body mass instead of brain size and body mass.

2nd Edit:
This might be more interesting and accurate information concerning the topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalization_quotient

It’s one of the ‘lies’ that Anet has NPCs present as truth – much like half of what Thrulnn the Lost says in Hoelbrak. Asura are, very obviously, biased towards their own intelligence being greater than the other races – and are very often disproved. Their only superiority is experience and rashness in the field of magitech.

Looking at the shape of a Charr’s head, there actually isn’t much room for a significantly massive brain. Hypothetically, Charr would need to have a very unusual brain structure allowing for generous surface area in order for them to display the level of intelligence they do.
There is, however, room for a very large and complex cerebellum. This would provide for superhuman agility, balance, and coordination.