Network cohesion, group size and neocortex size in female-bonded Old World primates

Network cohesion, group size and neocortex size in female-bonded Old World primates.

Most primates are intensely social and spend a large amount of time servicing social relationships. In this study, we use social network analysis to examine the relationship between primate group size, total brain size, neocortex ratio and several social network metrics concerned with network cohesion. Using female grooming networks from a number of Old World monkey species, we found that neoco...

Neocortex size as a constraint on group size in primates

Two general kinds of theory (one ecological and one social) have been advanced to explain the fact that primates have larger brains and greater congnitive abilities than other animals. Data on neocortex volume, group size and a number of behavioural ecology variables are used to test between the various theories. Group size is found to be a function of relative neocortical volume, but the ecolo...

Group size, grooming and social cohesion in primates

Neocortex size predicts deception rate in primates.

Human brain organization is built upon a more ancient adaptation, the large brain of simian primates: on average, monkeys and apes have brains twice as large as expected for mammals of their size, principally as a result of neocortical enlargement. Testing the adaptive benefit of this evolutionary specialization depends on finding an association between brain size and function in primates. Howe...

Co-evolution of neocortex size, group size and language in humans

Group size is a function of relative neocortical volume in nonhuman primates. Extrapolation from this regression equation yields a predicted group size for modern humans very similar to that of certain hunter-gatherer and traditional horticulturalist societies. Groups of similar size are also found in other large-scale forms of contemporary and historical society. Among primates, the cohesion o...