How Running For Our Lives May Have Made Humans Smarter

This image shows a 3-D reconstruction of a mouse brain based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The forebrain is seen in green, the midbrain in yellow and the cerebellum in orange.

 

(ISNS) -- Could athletic prowess be linked to the size of our brains? Some new research suggests that exercise-loving mice have larger midbrains then their more mellow counterparts.

Scientists now think that the ability to run far and fast helped us evolve both physically and mentally. For evidence, look to the common house mouse.

Scientists at the University of California, Riverside have taken house mice, bred for both their propensity and abilities on treadmill wheels, and found they had a larger section of their brain called the midbrain and other parts of the brain outside the cerebellum -- the motor control center -- than plain house mice. But the overall size of their brains did not vary significantly.

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