Scientists have studied brain scan images of over 3,000 residents of the United States aged 55-65 (Generation X) and found that the brain has increased on average by 6.6% compared to the previous generation.
In particular, their volume of white matter increased by almost 8%, and the surface area of gray matter turned out to be almost 15% larger than that of their parents. The brain region called the hippocampus, which plays an important role in memory and learning, increased in volume by 5.7%.
All these increases applied to both genders, and a person’s height did not matter.
According to scientists from the University of California who conducted this study, genetics play an important role in brain size, but health, social, cultural, and educational factors are also very important. People have definitely been leading healthier lifestyles in recent decades.
Scientists consider the increase in brain size a positive trend because it helps fight dementia, in which a person’s brain begins to shrink. Over the past three decades, the incidence of dementia in the United States and Europe has decreased by approximately 13%, which may confirm this assumption.
However, an increase in brain size does not mean that people have become smarter; quite the opposite. British psychologist Richard Lynn and his team studied IQ tests among Americans, Europeans, and Australians a few years ago, comparing tests from 2014 with those from 1970-2009.
According to their findings, the decline in intelligence over this period averaged almost 3 points.
Norwegian scientists, who studied over 730,000 IQ tests from past decades from the 1970s to 2009, obtained even more alarming results – people’s intelligence steadily decreased by an average of 7 points per generation.
According to Lynn, if the current trend continues, by 2110, the average IQ level of a person will not exceed 84 – currently, such a level is considered below average. People with this level of intelligence are unable to obtain higher education and perform at an average level in school. Currently, only about 10% of humanity has such an intelligence level.
