Von Economo neurons help in deciding whether to override pain and discomfort to push through a stretch or to stop if a limb is not designed to stretch further.

“This knowledge turns out to be very important to keep in mind because as we migrate this conversation toward the things that we can do to enhance flexibility and stretching, you'll soon learn that there are moments within a stretching protocol where you have the opportunity to either override pain and discomfort to kind of relax through it or push through it. Right, there's a decision fork in the road there, and it'll tell you which fork in the road to take, or to say, "Uh-uh, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to allow these natural reflexes of the spindle to kick in and just essentially stop me from stretching if a given limb isn't designed or shouldn't be stretched that far."”