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THE THEORY OF ENCEPHALIZATION
Author(s) -
Jerison Harry J.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1977.tb41903.x
Subject(s) - annals , citation , library science , psychology , history , classics , computer science
The theory of encephalization is developed from elementary dimensional requirements for the construction of a brain of given size. The basic assumption in the theory is that most of the brain in vertebrates is constructed as a series of mappings repeated at various levels. Encephalization is seen as a composite of an amplification factor for the repeated mappings (identical with the encephalization quotient EQ) and a factor associated with "added" tissue. The latter may be viewed as tissue that corresponds to new functions. The relation of the theory to allometric analysis is a relationship of theory to empirical estimation of "expected" brain size at a given body size. But body size is not fundamental to the theory. It is merely one of several possible sources of a measure of the area of a basic mapping, as it were, which is then subject to the amplification factor. Issues in the use of encephalization to assess behavioral capacities are reviewed briefly, as are the neurobiological correlates of encephalization and brain size.