The elephant has more muscles than a python. The appendage is strong enough to uproots a tree and sensitive enough to remove tortilla chips.
How does an elephant's brain help? It has been difficult to study that. The elephant's brain is a hassle to store due to its large size. The big animals are neglected because we don't do enough work on their big brains.
The Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin was able to obtain a trove of elephant brains from animals that had died of natural causes or were euthanized for health reasons.
According to a study published in the journal Science Advances, elephants have more facial neuralgia than any other mammal. African savanna elephants and Asian elephants have different neural wiring.
The brains of four Asian elephants and four African savanna elephants were used to home in on the facial nucleus. The control center for facial muscles is located in these neurons. Whenever you raise your eyebrows, purse your lips or wrinkling your nose, they are in charge. Elephants use their trunks.
The elephant has ears, lips, and trunk. African elephants have more facial cells than their Asian cousins. dolphins are the only mammals with more than one hundred thousand facial neurons.
The discrepancy between the two species was noteworthy.
The animals have different facial features. African elephants have large ears which they use to charge. The researchers found a correlation between the amount of facial neurons and the number of ears. The amount of neurons controlling Asian elephant ears dwarfs the amount needed to operate the whole human face.
Half of the elephant's total facial neurons are needed to operate its trunk. African elephants use two fingerlike projections on the tips of their trunks to pinch objects. Asian elephants use their trunks to hold objects. African elephants have two neural regions that are related to fine finger control at the tips of their trunks, but Asian elephants have only one.
While defining the roles of various parts of the elephant's facial nucleus is useful, a neuroscientist who was not involved in the new study thinks the number of neurons is unsurprising.
The elephant brain is also impressive. The elephant's cerebellum, the brain region that controls motor functions, has 12 times as many neurons as expected. She said that the elephant's cerebellum is very high up in the air.
Dr. Brecht believes that a better understanding of the structures in elephants can provide insight into other large mammals.
He said that although we are not as big as elephants, we are still quite large.
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