14 DAY TRIAL // An area of the brain known as the frontal cortex has previously been documented to influence social behavior both in humans and in primates.
Interestingly enough, recent evidence suggests that said part of the brain also influences the social nature of carnivores.
Thus, neuroscientist Sharleen Sakai with the Michigan State University says that, after studying the brains and the behavioral patterns of several animal species (i.e. hyenas, lions and creatures in the raccoon family), he found that those with the biggest frontal cortex were also the most social.
This indicates that the frontal cortex of carnivores performs the same tasks as that of humans and primates.
“Most neuroscience research that looks at how brains evolve has focused primarily on primates, so nobody really knows what the frontal cortex in a carnivore does,” Sharleen Sakai said.
“These findings suggest the frontal cortex is processing social information in carnivores perhaps similar to what we’ve seen in monkeys and humans,” he added.