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

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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 18
humans and such brain asymmetries may be a key component of human evolution. However, it is not clear how asymmetrical structures and functions are linked. One hypothesis for leftward language lateralization in Wernicke’s area is based on the asymmetry of vertical units of cells (minicolumns) in the cerebral cortex, where minicolumns are wider in the left hemisphere in humans but symmetrical in non-human primates. It is not known whether there is a similar species difference in the face processing region, the fusiform cortex. We investigated the fusiform of 14 human and 14 chimpanzee post-mortem brains for species differences in minicolumn and cell size symmetry. Minicolumn spacing and neuron size were asymetrical* in humans (wider and larger on the left, respectively), but symmetrical* in chimpanzees (species differences p
Page 1 and 2: Primate Society of Great Britain No
Page 3 and 4: EDITORIAL This time last year, I co
Page 5 and 6: REPORT: PSGB Spring Meeting 2010 So
Page 7 and 8: REPORT: Pre-PSGB Spring Meeting Wor
Page 9 and 10: PSGB Spring Meeting 2010 Social Cog
Page 11 and 12: The case for a common gestural repe
Page 13 and 14: produced by similar genetic changes
Page 15 and 16: Application of the comparative meth
Page 17 and 18: that might illustrate cognitive dif
Page 19: Exploring social arenas for forest
Page 23 and 24: integration as a promoter of social
Page 25 and 26: consistently observed conspecifics
Page 27 and 28: enclosures (81% of studies) and lon
Page 29 and 30: greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simu
Page 31 and 32: Future Meetings PSGB Winter Meeting
Page 33 and 34: Announcement: International Symposi
Page 35 and 36: CONSERVATION GRANT REPORTS Ecology
Page 37 and 38: Conducting hunter interviews (Fabe
Page 39 and 40: The low encounter rate of tarsiers
Page 41 and 42: Students with the principal investi
Page 43 and 44: ushmeat market. A weekly average of
Page 45 and 46: -5.545, p = 0.000) and that the slo
Page 47 and 48: of different ages and sexes, highli
Page 49 and 50: on callitrichid males’ responses
Page 51 and 52: empowering local communities living
Page 53 and 54: Part III discusses ecological diver
Page 55 and 56: governments, researchers and the pu
Page 57 and 58: THE PRIMATE SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAI
Page 59 and 60: THE PRIMATE SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAI

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

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