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Abstract
More than 20,000 autopsy reports from several general hospitals were surveyed for
the purpose of selecting brains without a pathological lesion that had been weighed
in the fresh condition. From this number, 2,773 males and 1,963 females were chosen
for whom body weight, body height, and cause of death had been recorded. The data
were segregated into 23 age groups ranging from birth to 86+ years and subjected to
statistical evaluation. Overall, the brain weights in males were greater than in females
by 9.8%. The largest increases in brain weights in both sexes occurred during the
first 3 years of life, when the value quadruples over that at birth, while during
the subsequent 15 years the brain weight barely quintuples over that at birth. Progressive
decline in brain weight begins at about 45 to 50 years of age and reaches its lowest
values after age 86 years, by which time the mean brain weight has decreased by about
11% relative to the maximum brain weight attained in young adults (about 19 years
of age). Computed regression lines for brain weights versus body heights and body
weights and for ratios for brain weights to body heights and weights versus age groups
show clearly differential rates of change in brain weights which are less affected
by sex.