  We explore the physical origin and robustness of constraints on the energy
density in relativistic species prior to and during recombination, often
expressed as constraints on an effective number of neutrino species, Neff.
Constraints from current data combination of Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy
Probe (WMAP) and South Pole Telescope (SPT) are almost entirely due to the
impact of the neutrinos on the expansion rate, and how those changes to the
expansion rate alter the ratio of the photon diffusion scale to the sound
horizon scale at recombination. We demonstrate that very little of the
constraining power comes from the early Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect,
and also provide a first determination of the amplitude of the early ISW
effect. Varying the fraction of baryonic mass in Helium, Yp, also changes the
ratio of damping to sound-horizon scales. We discuss the physical effects that
prevent the resulting near-degeneracy between Neff and Yp from being a complete
one. Examining light element abundance measurements, we see no significant
evidence for evolution of Neff and the baryon-to-photon ratio from the epoch of
big bang nucleosynthesis to decoupling. Finally, we consider measurements of
the distance-redshift relation at low to intermediate redshifts and their
implications for the value of Neff.
