spindle neuron

Spindle neurons appear to play a central role in the development of intelligent behavior.

Spindle neurons are found at a higher density in the right insular cortex.

Recently, primitive forms of spindle neurons have also been discovered in macaque monkey brains.

Altered spindle neuron states have been implicated in both schizophrenia and autism, but research into these correlations remains at a very early stage.

While rare in comparison to other neurons, spindle neurons are abundant, and large, in humans.

Allman's team reports that spindle neurons help channel neural signals from deep within the cortex to relatively distant parts of the brain.

The neocortex of many species of whale is home to elongated spindle neurons that, prior to 2007, were known only in hominids.

Whereas other types of cells tend to have many dendrites, the polar shaped morphology of spindle neurons is unique.

John Allman and his colleagues have shown that the anterior insular cortex contains a population of neurons, called spindle neurons.

Spindle neurons are relatively enormous cells that may allow rapid communication across the relatively large brains of great apes, Elephantidaes, and Cetacea.

Evidence suggests that FTD selectively impairs spindle neurons, a type of neuron which has only been found in the brains of humans, great apes, and whales.

Whale spindle neurons are found in areas of the brain that are homologous to where they are found in humans, suggesting that they perform a similar function.

The largest number of ACC spindle neurons are found in humans, fewer in the gracile great apes, and fewest in the robust great apes.

Abnormal spindle neuron development may be linked to several psychotic disorders, typically those characterized by distortions of reality, disturbances of thought, disturbances of language, and withdrawal from social contact.

Allman and his colleagues have delved beyond the level of brain infrastructure to investigate how spindle neurons function at the superstructural level, focusing on their role as 'air traffic controllers' for emotions.

Spindle neurons have been implicated by scientists as having an important role in many cognitive abilities and disabilities generally unique to humans, ranging from savant perceptiveness and perfect pitch to dyslexia and autism.

Spindle neurons may develop abnormally in people with autistic disorders, and abnormalities may also be linked to schizophrenia and frontotemporal lobe degeneration, but research into these correlations is at a very early stage.

The observation that spindle neurons only occur in a highly significant group of animals (from a human point of view) has led to speculation that they are of great importance in human evolution and/or brain function.

Neuronal volumes of ACC spindle neurons were larger in humans and the gracile (slender) chimpanzees than the spindle neurons of the robust gorillas and orangutans.

The term "von Economo neurons" or spindle neurons has been given to large bipolar nerve cells identified by von Economo in layer V of the anterior cingulate and fronto-insular cortex.

The spindle neurons, now called the Von Economo neurons to distinguish them from other spindle-shaped cells, were first located in layer V of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and later found in the frontoinsular cortex.

In 1999, Professor John Allman, a neuroscientist, and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology first published a report on spindle neurons found in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) of hominids, but not in any other species.

Spindle neuron - also called von Economo neurons (VENs), are a specific class of neurons that are characterized by a large spindle-shaped soma, gradually tapering into a single apical axon in one direction, with only a single dendrite facing opposite.

The discovery of spindle neurons in diverse whale species has led to the suggestion that they are "a possible obligatory neuronal adaptation in very large brains, permitting fast information processing and transfer along highly specific projections and that evolved in relation to emerging social behaviors."