Experts in action: why we need an embodied social brain hypothesis

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary biology
• Neuroscience
• Primatology

Background:

• Anthropoid primates exhibit high sociality and large brains.
• The social brain hypothesis links these traits, focusing on cognitive skills for social maneuvering.
• Existing research often emphasizes metarepresentation and 'theory of mind'.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose an alternative framework for primate brain and social evolution.
• To re-center the role of the physical body and action control in evolutionary explanations.
• To challenge the exclusive focus on cognitive and mentalistic aspects of the social brain hypothesis.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual review and theoretical synthesis.
• Critique of existing social brain hypothesis frameworks.
• Development of a body- and action-centric evolutionary model.

Main Results:

• The current social brain hypothesis may neglect the fundamental role of action and the physical body.
• An alternative perspective grounding evolution in embodied action offers a more complete understanding.
• Primate social evolution is better understood through the lens of physical interaction and control.

Conclusions:

• Primate brains evolved primarily for action control within a physical world.
• Emphasizing embodied action provides a more robust alternative to purely cognitive explanations of primate social evolution.
• Future research should integrate the physical body and action into models of brain evolution.