Dunbar's Number Redux

Ran across this article today, new research from Robin Dunbar.

Oxford University researchers found maintaining friendships requires more brain power.

Their study concluded that people with real friends have to use more cognitive skills to understand what someone else thought.

This, however, did not occur with "online" friends, such as those made on social networking sites including Facebook or Twitter.

Scientists discovered a link between the number of friends people had and the size of their orbital prefrontal cortex, which is a region of the brain found just above the eyes.

The conclusions, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows for the first time that competency in social skills is determined by the size of peoples' brains.