Evolution in the Social Brain

@article{Dunbar2007EvolutionIT,
  title={Evolution in the Social Brain},
  author={Robin I. M. Dunbar and Susanne Shultz},
  journal={Science},
  year={2007},
  volume={317},
  pages={1344 - 1347}
}
The evolution of unusually large brains in some groups of animals, notably primates, has long been a puzzle. Although early explanations tended to emphasize the brain's role in sensory or technical competence (foraging skills, innovations, and way-finding), the balance of evidence now clearly favors the suggestion that it was the computational demands of living in large, complex societies that selected for large brains. However, recent analyses suggest that it may have been the particular… 
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1,359 Citations
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1,359 Citations

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This review outlines work from other relevant disciplines, including evolutionary economics, cognitive science and neurophysiology, to illustrate how these can be used to build a more general theoretical framework, incorporating notions of embodied and distributed cognition, in which to situate questions concerning the evolution of primate social cognition.

An Exploration of the Social Brain Hypothesis in Insects

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It is argued that ravens represent a promising case for testing the idea that sophisticated social cognition may evolve in systems with a given degree of social complexity, independently of phylogeny.

Explaining brain size variation: from social to cultural brain

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It is argued that cognition may play an important role in the maintenance of long-term relationships, something the authors name as ‘relationship intelligence’.

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Evidence in birds and mammals is accumulating that a large brain facilitates the construction of novel and altered behavioural patterns and that this ability helps dealing with new ecological challenges more successfully, supporting the cognitive-buffer interpretation of the evolution of large brains.

Genes, brains and mammalian social bonds.

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References

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