Constantin von Economo

Constantin von Economo (1876 to 1931) was an Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist of Romanian origin, born in Braila to a wealthy family of Greek descent and raised in Trieste. He began studying mechanical engineering in Vienna, switched to medicine after two years and took his medical degree in 1901. After two years of travel he trained under leading figures in Paris, Nancy, Strasbourg, Munich and Berlin, then worked at the Vienna clinic for psychiatry and nervous diseases headed by Julius Wagner-Jauregg. He gained his habilitation in 1913, became professor of psychiatry and neurology in 1921 and in 1931 was made head of a new department of brain research. He is best known for describing encephalitis lethargica, the epidemic brain inflammation of about 1915 to 1924, in a 1917 article and a 1929 monograph, and for the 1925 cytoarchitectonic atlas of the adult human cortex written with Georg Koskinas, which divided the cortex into seven lobes with many subdivisions. The large spindle-shaped cells he identified in the cingulate and insular cortex are called von Economo neurons. He was also a passionate aviator, the first Austrian to hold an international pilot diploma, and led the Austrian Aero-Club. He died in Vienna in 1931.