tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post1333802085715697977..comments2024-03-28T08:57:53.180+00:00Comments on Darwinian Conservatism by Larry Arnhart: Von Economo Neurons: The Neural Basis for Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, and the Moral Sense?Larry Arnharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14619785331100785170noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-13927310066416968082018-10-23T06:42:10.875+01:002018-10-23T06:42:10.875+01:00
Thank you for this great post.<br />Thank you for this great post.Robert smithhttps://www.clippingsolutions.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-15071641207361976162017-12-16T23:09:52.674+00:002017-12-16T23:09:52.674+00:00What little work has been done on this is confusin...What little work has been done on this is confusing. <br /><br />Allman et al. (2005) have proposed that autism might be caused by a failure of VENs to develop normally. But Santos et al. (2011) examined the postmortem brains of four young patients with autism and three comparably aged controls. The brains of the autism patients actually had a higher ratio of VENs to pyramidal neurons than control subjects. They surmise that patients with autism might actually suffer from too much self-consciousness/interoception!<br /><br />Allman et al. 2005. "Intuition and Autism: A Possible Role for Von Economo Neurons." TRENDS IN COGNITIVE SCIENCES 9:367-73.<br /><br />Santos et al. 2011. "Von Economo Neurons in Autism: A Stereologic Study of the Frontoinsular Cortex in Children." BRAIN RESEARCH 1380:206-217.<br />Larry Arnharthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14619785331100785170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-71165837099983457212017-12-16T18:52:10.637+00:002017-12-16T18:52:10.637+00:00There are few VENs in human infants at birth. The...<i>There are few VENs in human infants at birth. The number of VENs increases rapidly during the first eight months of life, and they reach adult numbers at about four years of age. The number is extremely variable between individuals, which might explain individual variability in the acuteness of self-awareness and social awareness (Allman et al. 2011).</i><br /><br />Which leads to some obvious questions. Do people with autism have substantially fewer VENs than people without? Do people with more severe autism have fewer VENs than people with less severe autism? Do people with different kinds or degrees of autism have different distributions of VENs?Roger Sweenyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12734128265493099062noreply@blogger.com