People who live or have lived in northern European countries have bigger brains and eyes to see better on shorter and cloudy winter days, according to a study by scientists at the University of Oxford (UK) and published in the journal Biology Letters .
After comparing the orbital basins and the space occupied by the gray mass of 55 skulls corresponding to subjects from 12 indigenous populations of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Micronesia, North America and Australia, the researchers deduced that living in high latitudes requires a larger brain area allocated to visual processing than to inhabit further south, in a sunny climate. Specifically, the greater the distance from the Equator and the less available ambient light, the larger the size of the eyes and the brain.
A bigger brain does not imply more intelligence, the experts clarified, pointing out that this adaptation is also present in nocturnal birds such as owls , and that the "extra" capacity of the brain is used to improve vision. The researchers also ruled out that the eye socket was associated with more fat around the eyes to protect against the cold.
