John Allman

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John Allman is a neuroscientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California and a well recognized expert on primates, cognition and evolutionary neuroscience.

In 2000, Allman's laboratory reported indentification of a class of neurons - large spindle-shaped cells - unique to humans and our closest relatives, the great apes. The spindle neurons were first located in layer V of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and later found in the frontoinsular cortex.

Spindle neurons may develop abnormally in people with autistic disorders, and abnormalities may also be linked to schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, but research into these correlations is at a very early stage.

Allman's team has reported reduced ACC size and metabolic activity in autistic patients, and activity of the ACC is also reduced in patients diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) and depression, whereas ACC activity is increased in patients with obsessive-compulsive, phobic, post-traumatic stress, and anxiety disorders. The ACC is largely responsible for relaying waves of neural signals from deep within the brain to far flung regions, including Brodmann area 10.

Allman studies brain evolution in mammals from multiple perspectives, and has created a number of 3d reconstructions of mammalian brains.

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[edit] External links

Caltech.edu - Allman Lab Homepage
Caltech.edu (pdf) - 'Two Phylogenetic Specializationsin the Human Brain', John Allman, Atiya Hakeem, and Karli Watson, The Neuroscientist, Vol 8, No 4, 2002
Caltech.edu (pdf) - 'Anterior cingulate cortex: The evolution of an interface between emotion and cognition' John Allman, Atiya Hakeem, J.M. Erwin, E. Nimchinsky, P. Hof, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol 935, pp 107-17, 2001
Caltech.edu (pdf) - 'Three-dimensional structure and evolution of primate primary visual cortex', Eliot C. Bush, John M. Allman, Anatomical Record, No 281A, pp 1088-1094, 2004
CrossRoadsInstitute.org - 'Humanity? Maybe It's in the Wiring', Sandra Blakeslee, New York Times (December 9, 2003)
NewScientistJobs.com - 'Why are treatments for spinal injuries and diseases like Alzheimer's trailing so far behind our knowledge of the brain and nervous system?' Helen Philips, NewScientist, (October 16, 2004)