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we will cover spindle neurons, sometimes called
von economo neurons, named after the person discovering
these special types of neurons. Constantine von
Economo in the mid -1920s. Von Economo was studying
human cortical tissue at the time, and he described
these elongated spindle -shaped cells. These
are much different than the pyramidal cells.
And interestingly, he discovered these in the
anterior cingulate cortex, the ACC. We've talked
about the ACC in great lengths several episodes
and in the insula cortex or the insular cortex
another region of interest for us on the podcast
Now this is interesting to me Because this is
the hub these two regions are the hub that make
up the salience network also also discovered
as being implicated in autism remember the study
from UCLA published last year about one year
ago now that found at six weeks old autistic
humans autistic babies have an impaired salience
network connections to and from and if you're
just listening you're thinking well they're at
six weeks old one they use functional connectivity
So they use this imaging at UCLA. They have these
equipments. They're equipped to do this. And
second thing is, they have a high likelihood
group and a typical likelihood group. So they
were able to follow these six weeks old children,
these babies, up until two, three years old,
to see and track their autistic phenotype, to
see if this came true. Now with the research,
sometimes they are called spindle neurons, and
sometimes they are just called von economo neurons.
Sometimes VEN. I'm going to mostly say spindle
neurons, I believe. The reason why they're spindle
neurons is because they are like a cylinder,
like a soda can shape. These are nearly twice
the size of those pyramidal neurons. You can
see some pictures, some images of these, just
doing a quick Google search. These are large
cells. And the ideal is they allow for rapid
communication. We've also talked about monosynaptic
connections, a direct connection from cell to
cell. For instance, melanopsin in the retina
to the SCN. in the hypothalamus, our master clock,
that is monosynaptic, meaning it does not have
to connect using synapses to travel from point
A to point B. This also allows for rapid communication.
So the ideal is that these type of rare cells
are doing essentially the same thing, faster
communication from point A to point B. And also,
it appears that the main thing, this main action,
response, activity for the spindle neurons are
social behaviors. Very interesting again. So
Von Economo discovered, I guess you will, will
credit him for the discovery of these spindle
neurons in the 1920s. and then research kind
of stops on these special types of neurons until
late 90s, mid late 90s year 2000 or so when a
guy named John Allman kind of so -called rediscovers
them and starts to study these. Now one guess
I have is these spindle neurons are less dense.
There are very few of them in these two regions
of our body. The ACC and the Insula. They are
not just heavily populated. So this might be
difficult for people to go and search. It might
be difficult for people to think that these cells
have significance. So we have the interesting
fact that These cells are only in the ACC and
Insula, the two major hubs that make up the salience
network. We'll speak more about the salience
network in a minute. And also the second interesting
point are these cells appear to only be used
for social behaviors. Now the third interesting
point right away is these cells so far, so far
they have only been found in very few species
mostly larger primates and a few cetaceans so
-called cetaceans which are dolphins and whales
so very social creatures mind you that's what
that's really what sticks out here these larger
primates that can sustain their species and be
more developed and evolved and have a pretty
good social structure. Okay, let's talk about
some structure of this actual spindle neuron
a bit. So they are larger, they are bipolar,
okay? They're spindle -shaped cell bodies. Remember,
they're kind of cylinder. And they have very
minimal dendrites. Remember, we've talked about
some dendrites in the dorsal striatum. Remember,
we was talking with Dr. Hannah Stevens from University
of Iowa. The cells for autistics in the dorsal
striatum, which is where our motivations and
movements converge. And not motivations that
you might think, but the motivations of the central
nervous system trying to respond. Remember, we
just respond without the use of this higher order
top -down processing. And this is what we're...
we're kind of getting to here anyways with the
top -down processing and just evaluating the
self with that salience network the dorsal striatum
the cells here for autistics are have very dense
dendrites so it's kind of the opposite here now
the difference between the dendrites and typical
brain and autistic brains are not known to me
right now And another factor is that the cortex
of the human brain, we have layers, six layers,
and the ideal is these are layered on top of
each other like crepes. The spindle neurons are
found in layer five. These cells, the spindle
neurons, are mostly monoamine, dopamine and serotonin.
In addition, some of them can express neuropeptide
Y. Neuropeptide Y is very crucial and it's a
very dynamic little molecule similar to kind
of vasopressin and oxytocin and it has roles
with like fear buffering, fear modulation, social
bonding, energy, metabolism, food intake, and
helping determine physiology like breathing and
breath rate and heart rate. Okay, so that's just
a brief summary of neuropeptide Y. It's 36 amino
acids. Remember, oxytocin and vasopressin were
only nine proteins. So the von Economo spindle
neurons come on board roughly four months to
35 weeks of gestation. So it's kind of mid to
late. time frame of the in utero and they last
they they build up and humans for the essentially
the first four years of life for humans and this
this really captures that social network and
social skills social learning and just bringing
in all of the social the source of social information
here so another thing that kind of captures the
role, the specific role with social behaviors.
In addition to the serotonin and dopamine and
that neuropeptide Y even. So with their unique
roles, it really equips the human brain with
specialized functions here that humans and these
other larger primates are utilizing. So just
briefly on these other mammals with larger brains
and larger primates and so forth it is estimated
that between the the ACC and the insula now let's
just break this insula into regions here we're
going to be talking about the anterior or sometimes
called the frontal insula this is where this
is more of the seat of the salience network So
if I say insula, it's more of this front region.
So humans have roughly 100 ,000 to 200 ,000 in
these two regions here. Also found are great
apes, such as chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas,
and orangutans. They are also found in monkeys,
no surprise, and the cetaceans. Okay. These would
include things like humpback whale fin sperm
and killer whales as well as some dolphins different
types of dolphins Now it leads me to believe
that perhaps these special cells these spindle
neurons are in more and more underwater creatures
especially Deeper into the oceans and so forth
in addition. They are found in some elephants
some signs that they are in elephants, African
and Asian elephants. And then even more recently,
perhaps they are in manteties and things like
giraffes and hippopotamus. But remember, these
are not very dense populations of cells. So they
are, I guess, harder to discover. And in 2008,
there was a third region. in the human brain
that appears to have these special spindle neurons.
And that's the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
And these are extremely rare in here. Clusters
of two. So very hard to search and find. So let's
talk about the salience network. We've had a
couple of episodes. We had autism -adaptive responses
where we kind of parsed out the medial prefrontal
cortex, which includes the ACC and the insula.
And then we also had another episode about autism
and the insula. So we've covered these two regions.
So the salience network is no surprise. It brings
our attention to that topic, to that area of
interest within the living organism. It determines
relevant stimuli, and then it integrates the
sensory. We've talked about sensory integration
in quite great detail even, with the neural relation
and the mesencephalon. Huge in the mesencephalon
is sensory integration. The salience network
also helps determine emotional and cognitive
information. to guide our attention that decision
-making and behavior. Remember, we are predicting
machines, okay? And we are constantly using internal
calculators, biological calculators. And this
is a big data input here for that process, the
so -called salient network. but really specifically
the ACC and the anterior region of the insula.
Some significant connections here would include
the amygdala, the ventral striata, which includes
the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens
is a very powerful little brain region here.
It also connects to the substantia nigra and
the ventral tegmental area, so hot spots for
dopamine. Remember the substantia nigra in the
basal ganglia episodes and the Parkinson episode,
where we can break this down into two subdivisions,
the reticulata, which is GABA, and pars compacta,
which is the dopamine. And also remember Dr.
Reza Shadmir talking about that as well to us.
The salience network also connects to the thalamus,
of course, the sensory relay hub, and the hypothalamus.
So huge subcortical areas here. So the salience
detection is a role here. That's defined more
as a identifying stimuli from the environment.
That could be a threat or a social cue, or it
could help assign our priority. Remember, that's
what we're doing. We're predicting and using
internal calculators and then just prioritizing
our needs. The metabolic bank accountant, the
brain is allocating while conserving brain energy,
biological energy. The Salience Network also
is involved with network switching. This is a
very big one. This is how I kind of was introduced
to the Insula and the Salience Network some years
ago because of this network switching. Because
it's kind of the fulcrum of on one side you have
the default mode network. Remember the Autism
in the Default Mode Network episode? This is
heavily researched in autism. And on the other
side of that, though, is the executive network.
This goal -directed task that makes us really
unique species. Well, sort of. This is also some
reasons why we are very harmful to ourselves.
So that's debatable if we're... Only humans say
that we're the top species. on Earth, the top
living organism. When reality is, well, we would
probably be 12 to 15. Because we harm ourselves
so much. Another role is the social and emotional
processing. So the Salience Network can help
facilitate the empathy. And remember Sir Simon
Barron Cohen's theory of mind from 1985. Largely
false. largely false and really set autism research
back. Set a narrative about autism. So this helps
us with the social decisions and interoceptive.
The interoceptive integration. This is a large
thing of what the insulate self is doing. But
also some ACC because of that powerful internal
calculator with adaptive responses and decision
making. the conflict monitoring, and so forth.
Interoception is here. The insula is unique because
it's evaluating, receiving information from the
brain about different brain states, such as valence
even. It's receiving information from the body,
bodily states, and physiology. So, how's my breathing?
The rate and the depth? How's my heart rate?
How's my gut feedback? Am I sweating? Am I...
comfortable in this environment, at this moment,
and so forth. And the third data point is the
environment. So the insula receives all information
about the living organism in that space and time
domain. This is why the insula is very cool.
And based off of that, it has autonomic regulation,
right? The central nervous system. sympathetic
and parasympathetic. This salience network is
kind of hinging on that. So the salience network
is recruiting and activating things and inactivating
things, shutting things off. And it's just kind
of conducting this for us in real time and in
planning even. So the ACC, the frontal insula,
the anterior region, and this so -called salience
network, it's not only using the spindle neurons
though. So it's hard to parse out what is doing
what within this kind of network. However, with
the spindle neurons, it seems to be that they
are central to the process and respond to that
salience stimuli that helps the larger size and
long projections to enable that rapid communication.
Remember the larger cells, it can travel from
point A to point B faster. And if you think about
the time scales that humans are on, am I good?
Am I not good? Am I good? Am I not good? What
do I need now? And so forth. It's very rapid
and it's pretty constant. The brain is always
evaluating what do I need and how few of that
can I use while remaining within homeostasis,
the unique comfort of the living organism. I
would like to take a moment and mention a pressing
issue we are seeing in our modern world and that
is tech use and tech light. The data are impressive
and concerning on isolated wavelengths of light,
especially shorter wavelengths, which is blue
light. For those that don't know, we have chromophores,
which are special proteins that absorb specific
wavelengths of light. For blue light, The light
that is LED light and tech light, that protein
is called melanopsin. Melanopsin is responsible
for our circadian biology, physiology and cell
functioning, hormone regulation, and even a connection
to an area huge for mood. A consideration we
should include is This protein was not even discovered
until 1998. It seems important for us to understand
how our biology uses the different wavelengths
of light for various aspects of our biology.
This blue light chromophore is our master controller,
our master clock. Remember, circadian rhythm
is a two -part process. Two independent parts.
Light and dark. For a quick reference, see the
2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.
But for now, I have something exciting. I want
to introduce a product unlike any other product
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based on these factors. The Daylight Computer
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Short wavelength flicker is extremely harmful
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on and off. Essentially, it is like going to
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off. The problem is blue light and LED light
does this and it is so rapid you cannot even
perceive this in real time. The daylight computer
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You can use the code Autism for a $25 off coupon.
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a quick search in your internet browser. Use
the code autism for $25 off. So what kind of
diseases and conditions has these spindle neurons
been linked to? So autism is one. Frontotemporal
dementia is one. Remember, that kind of has a
loss of empathy and the social behavior is a
little abnormal. Schizophrenia, no surprise if
autism is going to be there. Schizophrenia has
a better chance of showing up. So that salience
misunderstanding and that social withdrawal linked
to the reduced spindle neuron density and Alzheimer's
disease. So that late stage Alzheimer's very
sad situation and the emotional deficits appear
to be at least in some part related to the spindle
neurons and also suicide so emotional dysregulation
tied to those loss or lack of spindle neurons
now that's not the main data of the episode That's
just the brief summary of how these are interacting.
So the spindle neurons and autism. Okay, so post
-mortem studies show increased spindle neuron
density in the anterior insula of children with
autism from age 4 to 14. So this is tied to,
the idea here is it's tied to that early brain
overgrowth. So they're just filling in that population
and that space and time. While adult studies
show no significant difference. So often in times,
with the enlarged brain of the early autistic,
it kind of, I don't want to say fixes itself,
but it kind of does. The older brains learn to
prune its population better, keep up with pruning
and the size and its needs better than the autistic
children. In the salience network, the connectivity
here using the spindle neurons is altered. Hyper
-connectivity between the anterior insula and
the sensory regions and causes sensory hypersensitivity.
very big problem in autism we've covered other
areas responsible for this such as the midbrain
and The sensory processing episode see part two
of that where we really parse out studies and
using instruments like the N 100 and the M 100
and the fMRI machine Where it shows information
is getting to the midbrain area faster in autistics
than typical developed. But downstream, it loses
its energy, and it has a slower connection to
those downstream areas, like the cortical areas.
And also, with the spindle neurons in autistic
subjects, there's a hypo -connectivity, no surprise.
This is very common. In the prefrontal regions,
And this implicates that social cognition, that
social skills and the social behavior, learning
to do these, learning the social cues. Remember
the eye contact. Eyes to the superior colliculus,
to the frontal eye fields, and from the superior
colliculus to the thalamus. The superior colliculus
and the thalamus are right next to each other.
they can essentially just reach out and high
five each other. And this determines eye, psychotic
eye movements and eye attention. Big problem
here. But then downstream you add this to it.
Big problem. And don't forget one of the roles
of the salience network is that network switching,
right? It's acting as a fulcrum if it's on a
teeter totter or a seesaw. balancing, activating
and inactivating the default mode network and
the executive functioning. And remember the autism
and adaptive responses episode that is essentially
covering this. The inability to adapt appropriately
in social situations. It's stuck in this internal
world. It's stuck in that default mode network.
The Autistic Phenotype prefers the default mode
network. It's inter -world. Remember the Insula,
everything we just talked about today on the
Insula. This is the Autistic Phenotype. If you're
listening to the podcast, listening to the episode,
please feel free to leave a review or rating.
In podcasting, reviews, ratings, and downloads
are huge. and I very much appreciate your feedback.
You can contact me on X at RPS 47586. Just look
for the podcast and we can have any conversation
about autism that you wish. I'm always happy
to discuss autism with anybody that wants to.
You can check out the YouTube channel for full
length videos and shorts and clips. You can email
me. info .fromthespectrumatgmail .com Thank you
for listening to From the Spectrum Podcast.