Why Are We Social Beings?
Frontal Insula, the place where the von Economo neurons are located
John Allman, who is a neuroscientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena has the task of finding out why we are who we are because of our brains, and why are we different than all the other creatures that live on this planet. Everything started when he was studying the brain of an African elephant, which has unique social skills.
We, the humans, the apes, and other gregarious creatures, have the Economo neurons in our brains. They are little brain cells which have a peculiar shape and they are the reason why we are evolved from an intellectual point of view than the other animals. It seems that they are responsible for our evolution as a species. Todd Preuss, who is a neuroanatomist and anthropologist at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, said that most of the neuroscientists tend to stay away from this subject of finding out why we are humans. He said that because of it, there isn’t too much information about our brains, besides the fact that they are bigger than the ones of the other animals. The von Economo neurons have been the most important discovery in the differences from our brains and the ones of the animals so far.
The first brain cells which could be found exclusively in the case of the humans were found in 1995 by the neuroanatomist Patrick Hof ad his colleagues from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan. They discovered the von Economo neurons in the front of the brain, and they saw that they had a much bigger size than the regular neurons. However, they realized that they did not find a new cell, as the cell was discovered in 1881 by Constantin von Economo. He described the cells with minute detail in 1926, and soon after the description, the community forgot about them. Hof looked for these cells in the brains of various deceased primates, which were donated by various primate sanctuaries and zoos. He contacted Allman who was interested in the domain as well, and the two started collaborating together in order to find out more about this subject. They have realized that there are numerous primates who have these cells, but that the ones which were less evolved do not have them. That meant that the cells appeared only in the evolved primates.
Allman, who is a neuroanatomist, has been interested in this subject for a very long time. He has been interested in the things which make us humans for a while, and he has even written his thesis on this subject. He did numerous studies in the domain and he found out why the owl monkey could analyze the visual information. He was interested by the von Economo neurons because he realized that they might be the reason why we the humans are different from all the other species from this Earth when it comes to the intelligence and to the social skills we have. He discovered that these cells can be found in only two regions of the brain: the anterior cingulate cortex and the frontal insula. It has been discovered that these two areas of the brain become very active when one experiences emotions, and they also become very active when we have feelings of hunger, and pain. The ACC is involved in most of the physical and psychological efforts.
The frontal insula has a different task, and that is of producing such emotions as guilt, trust, empathy, love, sense of humor, and so on. When a mother hears the crying of her child, that portion of the brain is activated, and that portion of the brain makes her rush in the aid of her child. The effects of the social interactions are triggered in the frontal insula, and we would not be able to analyze our feelings and the feelings of the other people if it weren’t for that portion of the brain. The Economo cells are the reason why we are able to evaluate ourselves and to evaluate the other people as well. Allman believes that these cells influence the areas of the brain because in the case of the brain, the bigger the cells are the faster they are at transmitting information. He believes that these cells have the capacity of interpreting or reading things very fast and then of sending the information collected to the other regions of the brain as well.
He believes that the reason why these cells developed is because the size of our brains increased. Because of that, the brain needed larger cells which would be able to transmit information much faster and over a larger area and distance. He said that if these cells would have not been developed in the brain, than our intelligence would have been very limited, and we would have not been to do certain tasks. He is convinced that we are able to react to the various social situations because of the van Economo cells. They are able to adapt to every situation very fast, and as a result we are able to make the proper decisions. Thanks to them we were able to judge people, and to stay away from the ones who could represent a threat for our lives. These cells can be found in the primates, elephants, and in certain other species such as sperm whales, bottle-nosed dolphins, humpback whales, orcas, and fin whales. He believes that these cells were developed in the species which are now extinct, and that they have evolved into the cells we have today.
The elephants have the biggest von Economo neurons, but the in comparison to the other neurons, the rates are the same as in the case of the humans and of the other animals as well. It seems that there are about 500,000 von Economo neurons in our brains, which represent 1.25 percent of the neurons we have in our brains. We are the species which have the largest number of these cells in our brains. Based on this information, he believes that these cells are important when it comes to the social interactions, as well as when it comes to the speed with which the information is passed in the brain. If the theory proves to be true, then it means that the elephants and the whales are capable of having certain emotions which were considered to be strictly human, such as empathy, guilt, and so on.
It is a known fact that the elephants and the whales have the capacity of social interactions, and that they have well established groups. The elephants for example have male groups consisting of a leader, and of followers which have different positions in the group. The hierarchy is similar to the one from the army, or from the mob. The friendships which the elephants establish are usually for life. The little ones depict the social skills from the larger ones, and in most of the cases the friendship between these two is for life. The whales hunt in groups, and when one of the members is injured, they take care of that member. When an elephant dies, the other elephants come near the body and the scientists have reached to the conclusion that what they are doing is similar to the mourning we humans go through. Allman said that he saw a documentary in which a group of elephants adopted a baby calf. When that baby fell in the water, the other elephants quickly rushed in the area and rescued it by using their trunks. The interesting thing is that they used their trunk in order to signal the other elephants that something is wrong.
He said that this proves that the elephants are capable of having very complex relationships, and of communicating at a real advanced level. It seems that there are some animals which are much smarter than it was previously believed. For example Frans de Waal, a primatologist, said that one of the elephants from the Bronx Zoo could recognize himself in the mirror. The scientists said that an animal can not recognize himself in the mirror unless it has the capacity of self-awareness. They believe that there might be more animals with this capacity, but Allman said that if the animal does not have the van Economo neurons, then it is very unlikely that it has this capacity. He admitted that the relationship between these cells and between these processes needs to be officially determined; otherwise things will remain in the speculation phase. He acknowledges the fact that the information in the domain is pretty limited, but he is confident that he will be able to find out more about it in the years to follow.
He said that it is a mystery that we are so evolved in comparison to the other animals. He is convinced that besides these neurons there must be other reasons why we are so evolved, and he intends to find out those reasons in the future as well. However, it seems that he might be onto something, as there is a condition which affects the region of the brain where the von Economo cells are located, and when that happens, the person suffers because of it. People who suffer from frontotemporal dementia lose their social skills. They no longer act in the proper manner, and they no longer have feelings of empathy. These people no longer care about the other people, and their activities become chaotic and irresponsible. It seems that these people lose their self-awareness as well. People who suffer from this disease can not admit the fact that they suffer from this disease.
William Seeley, a neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco was the one who conducted the research on the people suffering from frontotemporal dementia, said that he did not know why those people reacted in that manner when they got sick. He said that he attended one of Allman’s seminars, and there he saw that the Economo neurons are located in the same regions of the brain which are affected by the disease. He realized that there must be a connection between them. He realized that these people might lose their social skills, because the cells which make them humans, thus social beings started to get destroyed. The two started collaborating in order to see if the people who suffered from this disease had their Economo cells destroyed. They analyzed the brains of the deceased people who suffered from the condition, and they realized that the cells were destroyed.
70 percent of the cells from the anterior cingulate cortex and the frontal insula were destroyed in the case of these people. What made things even more interested was the fact that the surrounding cells were not damaged which meant that the disease only attacks the cells which make us social beings. It is quite fascinating if you think about it, that we are who we are because of these cells from our brain, and in case they get destroyed we can no longer act in the proper social manner. It seems that we are humans because of these mental characteristics, but the surprising fact is that there are these animals which have the same cells as we do. Maybe those animals which we consider to be much more inferior to us, are smarter than we initially considered them to be.
