Von Economo Neurons and Hominoids


Von Economo neurons are large, bipolar neurons located in the anterior cingulate cortex and fronto-insula cortex. They are present in orangutans, gorillas, common chimpanzees, bonobos, and humans. They are absent in siamangs, gibbons, old world monkeys, new world monkeys, and prosimmians. Von Economo neurons are larger than other, neighboring, neuron types and unlike, say, layer V pyramidal neurons, are larger in chimps and humans than in orangs and gorillas. There are also more of them in chimps and humans. More importantly, unlike the above mentioned layer V pyramidal cells and layer VI small fusiform cells, the volume of Von Economo neurons is correlated with increased encephalization. In humans the Von Economo neurons occur in clusters and, to add to the interest factor, they also occur in clusters in the bonobo (although there are fewer clusters). Why does this add to the interest factor? Let’s put it in phylogenetic context.
Sometime around 15-20 million years ago orangs split from the rest of the apes. They have the Von Economo neurons, but the neurons are rare. Around 10 million years ago the gorillas split off and in gorillas the neurons are frequent. Then around five million years ago chimps and humans diverged. The neurons are abundant in chimps and abundant and clustered in humans. Somewhere around 3-2 million years ago bonobos and chimps diverged and in bonobos the neurons are abundant and clustered just like in humans. So, what we have is a case of convergent* evolution between humans and bonobos. So what function do the Von Economo neurons serve? Nimchinsky et al suggest that:

…the spindle cells of the anterior cingulate cortex might represent a population of specialized neurons that could integrate inputs with emotional overtones and project to highly specific motor centers controlling vocalization, facial expression, or autonomic function. In addition, the presence of at least some spindle cells in the anterior portion of the insula supports the notion of their role in autonomic control, because this region also is known to be involved in the regulation of visceral, olfactory, and gustatory functions, as well as complex alimentary behaviors (46-49). However, in humans the anterior cingulate cortex also appears to be involved in higher-level processes that are responsible for more than merely sensory input or motor output. Recent functional imaging studies have demonstrated an important role for the dorsal human anterior cingulate cortex in attention, with its degree of activation increasing with task difficulty, and the more ventral portion in the experience of the “unpleasantness” of pain and in the recognition of the emotional content of faces (43, 50, 51). Thus, in humans, at least, the anterior cingulate cortex is involved in complex processes that assist in integration and interpretation of sensory information. In this context, the unique correlation among the resident neurons of layers V and VI of the cellular volume of spindle cells with encephalization in human and great apes lends further support to the possible association of spindle cells with higher cortical functioning.

They go on to focus on the language abilities of the great apes in general, but I think we need to take a closer look at bonobos…
*Update 1: Technically, this is incorrect. This would actually be a case of parallel evolution. Convergent evolution produces analogies between two lineages. Parallel evolution starts with two traits that are already similar (usually due to common ancestry) evolve similar changes. Chimps, bonobos, and human all share abundant Von Economo neurons, bonobos and humans evolved clusters of Von Economo neurons in parallel.
A neuronal morphologic type unique to humans and great apes. Esther A. Nimchinsky, Emmanuel Gilissen, John M. Allman, Daniel P. Perl, Joseph M. Erwin, and Patrick R. Hof. PNAS April 27, 1999 vol. 96 no. 9 5268-5273
Dendritic Architecture of the Von Economo Neurons. K. K. Watson, T. K. Jones, And J. M. Allman. Neuroscience 141 (2006) 1107-1112

11 Responses

  1. So, what’s the likelihood that Chimps lost the clustering after diverging from Bonobos?

  2. The two articles don’t directly address the issue of phylogeny. My reading of the papers is that the chimp condition would be primitive and the bonobos and humans are derived. I could be wrong though…

  3. Parsimony can’t differentiate a parallelism from a reversal with these data, but sampling more populations of chimps and gorillas might reveal variation (e.g. wider distribution of clustering) or differences in detail (e.g. of human vs. bonobo clusters) that would make one change more likely than the other. Or one could argue that changes are more likely to have occurred on long branches of the phylogeny, which supports parallelism (the Pan+Homo ancestral segment is quite short).

  4. Interesting post. I’m just a layman and have read numerous accounts of the temperamental and social differences between these two species but do not recall many studies comparing the cognitive functions of chimps to bonobos.

  5. Very interesting post, indeed. I just wish more of this research was done on Corvids… Where’s the love?

  6. I’m a co-author on a number of these papers regarding VENs in apes. We need especially to examine more bonobo brains, but it is already clear that there can be tremendous individual differences within species. I think there is a good chance that the clusters could have evolved before the Pan-Homo split, with common chimpanzees losing the clustering. Even so, there is even more interesting information now regarding “parallel” evolution (mechanism not really known).
    Mirror-image self recognition had been demonstrated only in humans and the great apes until fairly recent demonstrations in some toothed whales/dolphins and in elephants. Many other species of nonprimate mammals had been checked for VENs without finding them anywhere but in humans and great apes. Recently, VENs have been found in toothed whales and elephants. The VENs are clearly the same kind of neurons and they are clustered in the same regions of the brain as in humans and great apes.
    This suggests, I think, a potential for emergence that may extend across many mammals, with the development of these neurons only occuring in a small number of large-brained social populations. Allman found it in African elephant. Hof found it in Asian.
    Allman (from CalTech) is giving a talk this week at Salk in La Jolla on VENs in autism. This is another interesting story.

  7. Joe- That doesn’t surprise me that they have been found in toothed whales and elephants – well, okay it does a little. I’m going yo have to track some of that info down. Thank you for commenting.

  8. Since we now know that there was a certain amount of “cross-pollination between very early proto-humans and proto-chimp-bonobos just after the supposed split between the two lines, do you suppose that maybe there was a line of proto-humans and proto-chimp/bonobos that remained more closely linked for awhile and it was this particular group that diverged, still later, into bonobos on one side and humans on the other? And that we’re actually the teensiest bit less related to chimps than to bonobos? The book by De Waal and Lanting on bonobos seemed to be hinting in that direction, although nobody really said that. Has the bonobo genome been done?

  9. The proposal to do the bonobo genome has been submitted, but as far as I know it has not been done yet. Dates for the chimp/bonobo divergence range from 1.8-3 MYA. Dates for the chimp/human divergence are typically given as 5-6 MYA, although I have heard of one date as low as 4 MYA. If you accept an old dat for a chimp/bonobo split and a young date for chimp/humans then something like that might be possible…

  10. Interestingly enought these cells have been linked to trust, empathy, embarrassement and guilt. That would makes some of the differences between Bonobos and Chimps more understandable.

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