The von Economo neurons in the frontoinsular and anterior cingulate cortex

Abstract

The von Economo neurons (VENs) are large bipolar neurons located in fronto-insular cortex (FI) and anterior limbic area (LA) 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 post conception, with numbers increasing during the first eight 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 fronto-temporal dementia implies that they are involved in empathy, social awareness, and self-control, consistent with evidence from functional imaging.

Inter-individual variability in metacognitive ability for visuomotor performance and underlying brain structures

“…Abundant research has highlighted the complex neuronal architecture and functional specialization of the human insula (Allman et al, 2010(Allman et al, , 2011Craig, 2009;Evrard, Forro, & Logothetis, 2012), including a special role in sensorimotor integration through its widespread connectivity with various brain regions including the lateral prefrontal cortex as well as anterior cingulate and amygdala (Cauda et al, 2013). The most anterior part of the insula is associated not only with emotional and visceral functions (Craig, 2009), but also more cognitive functions such as error monitoring (Klein et al, 2007) and attentional shifts (Sridharan, Levitin, & Menon, 2008).…”

Nature versus Nurture in Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration: the Interaction of Genetic Background and Education on Brain Damage

“…3). The anterior cingulate cortex is affected in FTLD [30], and this type of damage has been demonstrated in monogenic forms as well [31,32]. Indeed, the specific involvement of this high-connected brain structure may argue for a role of genetic background in maintaining cognitive reserve by activating different functional networks and in modulating the efficiency of the recruited neuronal networks [33][34][35] to obtain the resultant neural compensation.…”

Modular architectonic organization of the insula in the macaque monkey

“…Finally, the available evidence suggests that the agranular areas integrate interoceptive activity, particularly gustatory and metaboreceptive activity, with olfactory signals relevant to visceral and homeostatic functions associated with feeding behavior, as others have suggested (for a review, see Price, 2007). Notably, one of the agranular areas, Ial, contains von Economo neurons (Evrard et al, 2012), which could have a special role in multimodal interoceptive integration and efferent control of homeostatic, emotional, and social responses (Allman et al, 2011).…”