Facebook Friends corresponds to brain size- Student BMJ Dec

I got my StudentBMJ delivered to my door this morning- always something I look forward to at the beginning of a new month!

I found an interesting and quirky article from the Proceedings of the Royal Society about brain structure and functioning when looking at social networking. The number of Facebook friends 'reliably predicts' the amount of grey matter in areas of the brain associated with social perception and associative memory (right superior temporal sulcus- yellow on the diagram 1). Grey matter is made up of neuronal cell bodies, it processes information and controls memories, emotions and intellect (we studied this in A2 Biology).

They also found a link between the size of real life peer group and the amount of grey matter in an area used for emotional learning and memory consolidation (amygdala- see diagram 2).

Diagram 1 is sourced from http://www.headway.org.uk/About-the-brain.aspx
Diagram 2 is sourced from http://northofneutral.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/beware-of-amygdala-hijacks/