study | Climate change will lead to shrinkage of the human brain

Weather of Arabia - Studies continue to reveal the impact of climate changes on human life, but it seems that the dimensions of climate changes and their effects on humans are much greater than we imagine. A new study revealed serious effects of climate change on the size of the human brain, after analyzing climate records and human remains over a period of 50,000 years.

"Given recent global warming trends, we must understand the impact of climate change on human brain size and ultimately human behaviour," says Jeff Morgan of the California Museum of Natural History, who led the study.

The study examined how the brain size of 298 samples of humans has changed over the past 50,000 years with changes in global temperature, humidity and precipitation. When the climate became warmer, average brain size declined significantly from what it was when it was cooler.

In the past 50,000 years, after the last ice age, temperatures began to rise until we reached the present day, according to Science Alert.

It turned out that human brain size was significantly larger during average cooler temperatures compared to warmer temperatures.

"Changes in brain size appear to occur thousands of years after changes in climate, and this is particularly evident after the last glacial peak, roughly 17,000 years ago," Stebel explains in his paper.

Current developments indicate that continued global warming could have adverse effects on human cognition. Even small decreases in brain size can affect physiology in a way that is not fully understood, says Staebel.

The analysis showed that humidity and precipitation levels also had an effect on brain development. While temperature is a more important factor, I did find a weak association between dry spells and slightly larger brain sizes.

According to Stiebel, ecosystem factors such as predation, indirect climatic influences such as vegetation cover, or non-climatic factors such as culture and technology can all contribute to a change in brain size.