Re: Brain size does not = intelligence in humans?

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> When mutated, these genes result in an abnormally small brain, a
> condition known as congenital microcephaly.

Alright...

> Researchers had expected that people with evolved versions of the gene
> would be smarter and have bigger heads, but were surprised to find this
> wasn't the case, Luciano says.

Why would anyone expect that? Why shouldn't the mutated allele be simply 
neutral -- or perhaps have a slight detrimental effect (_assuming_ here that 
it's similar to the mutation that causes microcephaly)?

> "We would predict that if you've got the more recent version you should
> have a higher IQ," she says.

I don't see why.

> Professor Colin Groves, an expert in human evolution from the Australian
> National University, says human brains began getting bigger after our
> earliest ancestors like Homo habilis appeared.

Together with body size, right?

> But our brains have stopped growing and have actually started getting
> smaller, or at least more 'compact'.
>
> "[Our brains] have got bigger but they're not getting bigger," he says.
> "In fact since the late Pleistocene in general they've got smaller."

I think this is taking the Neandertalers into account, which had -- on 
average -- bigger brains, both in absolute and relative measures, than us.

> While brain size appears to be related to intelligence between species,

News to me...