It has been proposed that schizophrenia is a consequence of the lateralization of the brain in conjunction with the evolution of human language. Differences have been found between normal and schizophrenic brains in the size and lateralization of temporal lobes. Most work, however, has concentrated on gross structures while ignoring the potential for anatomical differences that may be found in relevant cytoarchitectonic areas. Furthermore, it would be profitable to examine anatomical components that correlate with known functional significance. Such a structure is the minicolumn, a fundamental anatomical and physiological unit of the cortex. The morphology of the minicoiumn has been shown to differ between small architectonic regions, reflecting variation in input, output, and local organization. For this reason, it was chosen as the ideal anatomical marker for the investigation of asymmetrical differences. In our preliminary studies, we examined five morphological features of minicolumns in 11 normal and 5 schizophrenic brains. The results revealed that: 1) differences between normal and schizophrenic brains are found not in the horizontal spacing that separate cell columns internalized structure of the cell columns, and 2) asymmetry of cell columns involves more than one anatomical variable. This project will examine possible differences in lateralization patterns of minicolumns in selected areas of cortex, including a part of Wernicke's language area, in 40 normal and 52 schizophrenic brains derived from the Runwell III collection. Magnified images (1 100x) of Nissl-stained cell columns in Lamina III will be analyzed by powerful computer imaging hardware and software enabling researchers to precisely quantify details of cell column morphology. If the preliminary findings of this study are confirmed, they will demonstrate that the reported differences of the temporal lobe in schizophrenia involve not only size but also a reorganization of a basic unit of function. Another possible outcome is that the number of minicolumns in the temporal lobe may differ without a concomitant change in the structural reorganization.
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