# How small could humans be and develop a similar civilization? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 12, 2024, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-could-humans-be-and-develop-a-similar-civilization/997490 "2024-02-12T20:43:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-could-humans-be-and-develop-a-similar-civilization/997490/61 "2024-02-15T17:50:13Z")
Looking it up I see that cell death is real and huge. Never knew that! ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-could-humans-be-and-develop-a-similar-civilization/997490/62 "2024-02-16T03:45:15Z")
For anyone else interested in the details if that culling: > **[Birth and death of neurons in the developing and mature mammalian brain | The...](https://ijdb.ehu.eus/article/210139id)** > > Although neuron birth and death are two contradictory processes, they serve the same purpose of the formation of the brain. They coexist during brain development, when cytoarchitecture and synaptic contacts are progressively established. It is the... I am still skeptical of that quiet bit. As the above covers in detail a large part of the culling occurs specifically to younger cells that are quiet, more precisely that activity triggers factors that promote survival and those cell that fail to become active therefore fail to get those growth factors and die off. The culling generally occurs at around birth. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-could-humans-be-and-develop-a-similar-civilization/997490/63 "2024-02-16T05:07:02Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > I am still skeptical of that quiet bit Yeah, on reflection, _quiet_ is a bit of an overstatement. Conduction is slower, and in the absence of significant mylenation function is not as strong. It seems that there is a bit of a chicken and egg. There may be an intrinsic phase where mylenation starts, and an adaptive phase where more axon signalling begets stronger mylenation. > **[Cerebral White Matter Myelination and Relations to Age, Gender, and Cognition:...](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8290169/)** > > White matter makes up about fifty percent of the human brain. Maturation of white matter accompanies biological development and undergoes the most dramatic changes during childhood and adolescence. Despite the advances in neuroimaging techniques, ... ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-could-humans-be-and-develop-a-similar-civilization/997490/64 "2024-02-16T06:30:57Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Generally, but songbirds are small and have few predators because they are hard to catch. Hmmm…I am not entirely confidant that is a correct statement. Songbirds have quite a slew of potential predators. Including a few specialists (some birds in particular), but also many, many incidental predators from felids to foxes to mantids to mustelids. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-could-humans-be-and-develop-a-similar-civilization/997490.md?page=3)