John Allman

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

Life

He graduated from University of Chicago, with a PhD.

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

John Allman (poet)

John Allman (born 1935 New York City), also known as Jack Allman, is an American poet.

Life

The son of John King Allman and Helen Burghard, and the first of five children his mother gave birth to, John Allman spent his early childhood in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. In 1943 the family moved to Astoria, Queens, where he eventually attended William Cullen Bryant High School until he dropped out in 1952. He earned his academic diploma at night school while working as a laboratory technician in the product control labs of Pepsi-Cola. He then enrolled in Brooklyn College as a pre-med student, but later transferred to Hunter College in the Bronx. After many delays, and a stint in California as a technician, he settled on studying the humanities and decided to become a writer. For his MA in English literature and creative writing from Syracuse University, he studied with Donald Dike, Cecil Lang, Philip Booth and Delmore Schwartz. He is retired and lives in Katonah, New York, with his wife Eileen Allman, also a writer. John Allman's papers are held at Syracuse University.