Through the process of greater efficiency, the human brain size began to shrink about 3,000 years ago and this is a huge new revelation in human evolution.

The latest research study conclusions suggest that specializations in labor or task-based work, along with shared knowledge through the development of language and social circles, allowed the human brain to progressively become more energy efficient and thus smaller in size.

While the size of human brain size has changed throughout history at various key junctures, a gradual decrease began around the end of the Pleistocene Epoch, i.e., the waning of the last Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago.

Evolution of the human brain from bigger to bigger still and then suddenly 3,000 years ago it starts to shrink.

Human brain size has nearly quadrupled in the six million years “since Homo last shared a common ancestor with the chimpanzees,” write the authors of the study, led by lead co-author Professor Jeremy M.

The reduction in brain size, however, seems to be fairly recent, beginning in a measurable way about 3,000 years ago.

Rather, the research study’s conclusions suggest that decreased human brain size resulted from the externalization of knowledge, and advantages in shared group-decision making , owing to the steady increased hierarchical organization of humans.

In the brief calendar of human history, it was only between 10,000 and 6,000 years ago, that human beings began living in settlements, and practicing settled agriculture, i.e., during the Neolithic Revolution.

The human brain shrinkage study also looked at the brains of leaf-cutter ants and other societally advanced ant species.

Dr James Traniello, from the Department of Biology, Boston University and co-author of the study, said in a statement to Sci-Tech Daily , “We propose that this decrease was due to increased reliance on collective intelligence, the idea that a group of people is smarter than the smartest person in the group, often called the 'wisdom of the crowds’.”.

Top image: The human brain has three parts and for millions of years it grew in size but 3,000 years ago it began to get smaller.

When and Why Did Human Brains Decrease in Size.

A New Change-Point Analysis and Insights From Brain Evolution in Ants.

Human brain DECREASED in size 3,000 years ago when ancient civilizations started because people didn't have to know everything themselves (so God knows what's happening to our brains).

Study found when and why did human brains decrease in size 3,000 years ago.

The human brain has reached its peak volume with the Neanderthals and since it has shrunk, but starting this process 3000 years ago seems too short of a time. It looks more plausible that  the shrinking process rather ended by that time

I always knew the more humans relied on the stored memory of computers it would decrease our own brain size