The old "monkey see, monkey do" adage may rest on some neuroscientific evidence, finds a new Yale study. To examine how the primate brain facilitates cooperative behavior among individuals during social interaction, a team of researchers trained pairs of marmoset monkeys to cooperate in a task.

The challenge: If the monkeys pulled separate levers within one second of each other, they'd receive treat rewards. Success required astute mutual observation between both monkeys and the ability to read body language cues so they could gauge each other's readiness to act.

The result: They pulled it off.

How? By employing what the researchers have dubbed "the social gaze." Specifically, the monkeys cooperated by continuously gathering and interpreting social information. The animals especially focused on eye gaze and body movements to predict what each other was about to do.

The findings are published in the journal Neuron.

. . .