Following our initial discovery of histological anomalies in the left hippocampi of schizophrenic patients, we plan to extend our studies to the right hippocampus and to the cerebellum of these patients and their age-matched controls. Brain specimens from a group of approximately age-matched manic-depressive patients will also be examined to determine whether organizational patterns of hippocampal cells are disturbed in psychoses other than schizophrenia. This addition will also enable us to test the reported relationship of right hemispheric disorder with affective illness and left hemispheric dysfunction with schizophrenia. The search for alterations in cerebellar histological structure is motivated by 1) the presence of vermal atrophy in the CT scans of many schizophrenic patients and 2) the discovery of very short latency conduction pathways between medial cerebellum and septohippocampal components of the limbic system. Confirmation and extension of our original findings may be of considerable importance in understanding pathogenetic factors in the schizophrenics.
| Conrad, A J; Abebe, T; Austin, R et al. (1991) Hippocampal pyramidal cell disarray in schizophrenia as a bilateral phenomenon. Arch Gen Psychiatry 48:413-7 |
| Altshuler, L L; Conrad, A; Kovelman, J A et al. (1987) Hippocampal pyramidal cell orientation in schizophrenia. A controlled neurohistologic study of the Yakovlev collection. Arch Gen Psychiatry 44:1094-8 |
