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The von Economo neurons in the frontoinsular and anterior cingulate cortex
Open accessAbstract
The von Economo neurons (VENs) are large bipolar neurons located in the frontoinsular cortex (FI) and limbic anterior (LA) area in great apes and humans but not in other primates. Our stereological counts of VENs in FI and LA show them to be more numerous in humans than in apes. In humans, small numbers of VENs appear the 36th week postconception, with numbers increasing during the first 8 months after birth. There are significantly more VENs in the right hemisphere in postnatal brains; this may be related to asymmetries in the autonomic nervous system. VENs are also present in elephants and whales and may be a specialization related to very large brain size. The large size and simple dendritic structure of these projection neurons suggest that they rapidly send basic information from FI and LA to other parts of the brain, while slower neighboring pyramids send more detailed information. Selective destruction of VENs in early stages of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) implies that they are involved in empathy, social awareness, and self‐control, consistent with evidence from functional imaging.
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“Human VENs express proteins linked to schizophrenia (notably DISC-1) and VEN density (in the anterior cingulate) has been linked to illness duration and completed suicide in psychotic patients [84].”
From Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self (2013) · cites this paper as [84]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Allman, J. M., Tetreault, N. A., Hakeem, A. Y., Manaye, K. F., Semendeferi, K., Erwin, J. M., Park, S., Goubert, V., & Hof, P. R.
- Affiliations
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Corresponding author
- Allman, John M.
- Venue
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2011-04
- Volume
- 1225
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 59-71
- ISSN
- 0077-8923 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-6632
- PMC
- PMC3140770
- OpenAlex
- W2164876229
- Cited by
- 280
- References
- 79
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 42 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 42 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 1.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (R44AG014308)
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH089406)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Keywords
- von Economo neurons, frontoinsular cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, human evolution, great apes, postnatal development, hemispheric lateralization, autonomic nervous system, brain size, elephants, whales, frontotemporal dementia, empathy, social awareness, self-control
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Cell Count, Biological Evolution, Gyrus Cinguli, Humans, Models, Biological, Neurons, Primates, Growth and Development
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