> [!quote] [Social connections influence brain structure of rhesus macaques](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220413141613.htm) via [[University of Pennsylvania]] via [[ScienceDaily]] on 2022-04-13 > the number of grooming partners an individual had predicted the size of brain areas associated with social decision-making and empathy. > > "For the first time, we're able to relate the complexity of social lives of a group of living primates with brain structure," says Camille Testard, a fourth-year doctoral student in the Platt Labs at Penn and lead author of the paper. > > After Hurricane Maria hit the island, for example, the researchers examined whether the macaques grew or shrunk their social networks in the face of more limited resources. Testard, who joined the lab in 2018, led the analysis for that study, which found that the animals became more social and more accepting of one another, forming new relationships in addition to those they already had. > > "There's something about the skills it takes to make and maintain a lot of friendships that you get from parents. You'd think it would be written into your brain when you're born, but it seems more likely to emerge from the patterns and interactions that you have," Platt says. "Perhaps that means that if your mother is social and you've got the capacity to be social, your brain can mature in the way that looks like the findings we've uncovered. That's intriguing."