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Neuronal Density and Architecture (Gray Level Index) in the Brains of Autistic Patients
- Source :
- Journal of Child Neurology. 17:515-521
- Publication Year :
- 2002
- Publisher :
- SAGE Publications, 2002.
-
Abstract
- Although neuropathologic studies have centered on small samples, it is accepted that brains of autistic individuals tend to be large, on average. Knowledge regarding the cause of this macrocephaly is limited. Postmortem studies reveal little in terms of cortical dysplasia. Some of these studies suggest increased cell-packing density in subcortical structures. These neuronomorphometric studies have been subjective or based their conclusions on measures of neuronal density. Our study sought the possible presence of increased cell-packing density by using the Gray Level Index. The Gray Level Index is defined as the ratio of the area covered by Nissl-stained elements to unstained area in postmortem samples. Analyzed images included Brodmann's cortical areas 9, 21, and 22 of 9 autistic patients (7 males, 2 females; mean age of 12 years, with a range of 5 to 28 years) and 11 normal controls (7 males, 4 females; mean age of 14 years, with a range of 3 to 25 years). The overall multivariate test revealed significant differences both between autistic patients and controls (P = .001) and between hemispheres (P = .025). Follow-up univariate tests showed significant diagnosis-dependent effects in feature distance (P = .005), the standard deviation in distance (P = .016), and feature amplitude (P = .001). The overall mean Gray Level Index was 19.4% in controls and 18.7% in autism (P = .724). In autism, an increased number of minicolumns, combined with fewer cells per column (or their greater dispersion), results in no global difference in neuronal density. (J Child Neurol 2002;17:515-521).
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
0301 basic medicine
Postmortem studies
Pathology
medicine.medical_specialty
Index (economics)
Adolescent
Cell Count
Audiology
Standard deviation
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
medicine
Humans
Autistic Disorder
Child
Neurons
Macrocephaly
Brain
Cortical dysplasia
medicine.disease
Gray level
030104 developmental biology
Case-Control Studies
Child, Preschool
Multivariate test
Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health
Autism
Female
Neurology (clinical)
medicine.symptom
Psychology
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17088283 and 08830738
- Volume :
- 17
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Child Neurology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....6e5046c340e77691a597f6562c185ddf