Human Brain Capacity Declines as Climate Change

Jumat, 7 Juli 2023 – 12:30 WIB

VIVA – A new study shows a link between past climate change and a decrease in human brain capacity, an adaptive response that emerged in an analysis of climate records and human remains over a 50,000-year period.

The research, conducted by cognitive scientist Jeff Morgan Stibel of the Natural History Museum in California, adds to our understanding of how humans evolve and adapt in response to environmental stress.

“Given recent global warming trends, it is critical to understand the impact of climate change, if any, on human brain size and ultimately human behavior,” Stibel wrote in his paper.

The study looked at how the brain size of 298 Homo specimens changed over the past 50,000 years in relation to natural records of global temperature, humidity and precipitation.

When the climate became warmer, the average brain size grew much smaller than when the climate was cooler. 

Stibel’s previous research on brain shrinkage prompted this investigation because he wanted to understand the root causes.

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“Understanding how the brain changes over time in hominins is very important, but very little research has been done on this,” Stibel said.