A group of British scientists have discovered that a certain part of the brain is larger in people that have many friends, Science Daily reported Saturday.

The size of the brain’s orbital prefrontal cortex -- placed just above the eyes -- is linked to people’s ability to understand what others are thinking, or to “mentalize,” according to a joint study by the Universities of Oxford, Liverpool University, Manchester University and Edinburgh University.


 

It is thought that the ability to mentalize is the key to handling social relations.

Researchers conducted an experiment where they scanned the brains of 40 volunteers to examine the area used in high-level thinking, and tested the mentalizing of participants. After that, the participants were asked to list everyone they had social contact with over the previous week.

The results showed that the individuals with larger neural volume in the orbital prefrontal cortex did better on mentalizing tests and had more than those with a smaller volume.

“What this tells us is that the size of your brain determines your social skills, and it is these that allow you have many friends,” said researcher Joanne Powell.

Lead researcher Robin Dunbar said the discovery will help to “understand the mechanism that led to humans developing bigger brains than other primate species.”

He added that the brain’s frontal lobe in particular has gotten larger over the last half a million years.


By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)