Indians have a smaller brain when compared to others in the world; yes this is the truth if the study by a group of researchers at the Hyderabad IIT has to be believed. Thoughts smaller brainshaving small brains, the Indian brain is much wanted in the field of medicine, Space and IT around the world.
The researchers have revealed that the average size of an Indian brain was smaller in height, width and volume when compared to that of people of Caucasian and Eastern races. The study has come to light with the first ever “Indian Brain Atlas” was conducted by the IIT researchers.
One of the implications of this study is with respect to brain related ailments such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimers and dementia. Now medical professionals refer to the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) template created on Caucasian brains, was the standard used for studying brains in India. But with Indian brains smaller, there could be differences in the MRI scans and that could lead to misdiagnosis, Jayanthi Sivaswamy, who led the research team, was quoted in the media.
The first digital human brain atlas was created by International Consortium for Brain Mapping and MNI in 1993. More brain mapping atlas was released hereafter that is now widely used in neuroscience studies. However, it has been now seen that these mapping atlas are not good enough to analyse Indian brains.
The researchers at the IIT along with the Department of Imaging Sciences and Interventional Radiology and Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, took up the task of brain mapping atlas of Indians.
