2010 Vol 101.pdf (1.63mb) - Primate Society of Great Britain

eturn to the same sleeping areas; there are even preferred sleeping locations
within the enclosure. There is a general need for more systematic studies
into sleep-related behaviours of captive primates. Research into social
aspects that influence sleep site selection, and group and individual
preferences for sleeping sites might also have implications for enclosure
design and welfare of captive primates
The socioecological adaptive basis of primate mosaic brain evolution
J. B. Smaers
University College London and University of Cambridge
Neocortex hyperscaling in primates is commonly interpreted as the prime
factor behind brain enlargement and as a main factor underlying primate
‘higher’ cognition. Hypotheses attempting to clarify neocortical adaptation
are thus fundamental to the study of primate cognitive evolution. In this
context, it has been debated whether social or ecological factors are the
main driving force behind brain adaptation. Although these hypotheses
make specific predictions about subregions of the neocortex, they have been
tested using the neocortex as a whole because of a lack of data. In our recent
work we presented new data on frontal and non-frontal neocortical lobe and
neocerebellum. We show that distinct cortico-cerebellar neural circuits
related to distinct aspects of learned behaviour can be recognized as
important mosaic patterns of a concerted brain structure evolution across the
primate clade. We also indicate that although both social and ecological
variables are associated to size changes in whole neocortex volume, social
variables are solely responsible for the evolution of frontal lobe size, while
ecological factors explain the evolution of non-frontal lobe size. We
propose a new model of primate brain evolution emphasizing the mosaic
evolution of neural circuits of interconnected brain structures and
integrating both social and ecological selective pressures driving brain
evolution. Our results help clarify a longstanding debate on the nature of
primate neocortical adaptation and demonstrate that primate brain
architecture reflects adaptation at an intracortical neuroanatomical level.
The neuro-anatomy of the face processing area in chimpanzees and
humans.
S. A. Chance 1 , E. K. Sawyer 1 , P. R. Hof 2 and T. J. Crow 3
1. Neuropathology, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford
2. Department of Neuroscience, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New
York, USA
3. SANE POWIC Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford
Face recognition provides important social cues in primates. Multiple
studies report that faces are processed on the right side of the brain in
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