New brain complexity: relational thinking (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, May 19, 2017, 14:15 (2745 days ago) @ David Turell

Old entry: 12/14/2014: Also crucial to their finding was a study led by Oxford University neuroscientist Matthew Rushworth that compared neural patterns in humans and macaque monkeys. While human and non-human primates were found to share similarities in the frontal and parietal brain regions, activity in the human rostrolateral prefrontal cortex differed significantly from that of the macaque monkey's frontal cortex, the study found.

Studies continue. Macaques have similar brain circuits to ours in following videos:

https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/monkeys-have-a-brain-circuit-for-analysing-social-in...

A new dimension to our deep evolutionary connection with rhesus macaques – “old world” monkeys – was revealed after researchers identified a region of the brain exclusively used to deconstruct social interactions.

Using whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), two researchers from the Rockefeller University in New York showed the monkeys videos of other monkeys interacting with each other and with objects.

They found neural networks in the part of the brain associated with visual processing were highly active when the monkeys watched videos of monkey–monkey interactions, such as grooming, playing and fighting. The researchers also observed another neural network that specifically activated when watching these videos.

These brain circuitry patterns resemble the human brain systems associated with social connections, showing that these primates have a high level of social cognition.

In the video above, we can see the directions of one monkey’s gaze, indicated by a red dot.

Comment: See the video. Obviously if we accept the theory of common descent we will have similar brain patterns of connections in our brains when compared to monkeys. what thee studies cannot tell us is depth of interest and understanding, the thought pattern of the macaques, that is pre-frontal lobe interpretation that we humans might imply.