An analysis of von Economo neurons in the cerebral cortex of cetaceans, artiodactyls, and perissodactyls

Title

An analysis of von Economo neurons in the cerebral cortex of cetaceans, artiodactyls, and perissodactyls

Creator

Raghanti M A; Spurlock L B; Treichler F R; Weigel S E; Stimmelmayr R; Butti C; Thewissen Jgmh; Hof P R

Publisher

Brain Structure & Function

Date

2015
2015-07

Description

Von Economo neurons (VENs) are specialized projection neurons with a characteristic spindle-shaped soma and thick basal and apical dendrites. VENs have been described in restricted cortical regions, with their most frequent appearance in layers III and V of the anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, and frontopolar cortex of humans, great apes, macaque monkeys, elephants, and some cetaceans. Recently, a ubiquitous distribution of VENs was reported in various cortical areas in the pygmy hippopotamus, one of the closest living relatives of cetaceans. That finding suggested that VENs might not be unique to only a few species that possess enlarged brains. In the present analysis, we assessed the phylogenetic distribution of VENs within species representative of the superordinal clade that includes cetartiodactyls and perissodactyls, as well as afrotherians. In addition, the distribution of fork cells that are often found in close proximity to VENs was also assessed. Nissl-stained sections from the frontal pole, anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, and occipital pole of bowhead whale, cow, sheep, deer, horse, pig, rock hyrax, and human were examined using stereologic methods to quantify VENs and fork cells within layer V of all four cortical regions. VENs and fork cells were found in each of the species examined here with species-specific differences in distributions and densities. The present results demonstrated that VENs and fork cells were not restricted to highly encephalized or socially complex species, and their repeated emergence among distantly related species seems to represent convergent evolution of specialized pyramidal neurons. The widespread phylogenetic presence of VENs and fork cells indicates that these neuron morphologies readily emerged in response to selective forces,whose variety and nature are yet to be identified.

Subject

Anatomy & Morphology; anterior cingulate cortex; bowhead whale; brain; cetartiodactyla; Cingulate; cortex; Cortical evolution; evolution; evolution; Fork cells; frontoinsular cortex; great apes; Insula; Neurosciences & Neurology; phylogeny; spindle neurons; variant frontotemporal dementia; Von Economo neurons (VENs); whale

Format

Journal Article

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Rights

Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

Pages

2303-2314

Issue

4

Volume

220

Citation

Raghanti M A; Spurlock L B; Treichler F R; Weigel S E; Stimmelmayr R; Butti C; Thewissen Jgmh; Hof P R, “An analysis of von Economo neurons in the cerebral cortex of cetaceans, artiodactyls, and perissodactyls,” NEOMED Bibliography Database, accessed March 29, 2024, https://neomed.omeka.net/items/show/6838.