Age-related reduction in microcolumnar structure in area 46 of the rhesus monkey correlates with behavioral decline

被引:25
作者
Cruz, L
Roe, DL
Urbanc, B
Cabral, H
Stanley, HE
Rosene, DL
机构
[1] Boston Univ, Dept Phys, Ctr Polymer Studies, Boston, MA 02215 USA
[2] Boston Univ, Sch Med, Dept Anat & Neurobiol, Boston, MA 02118 USA
[3] Emory Univ, Yerkes Natl Primate Res Ctr, Atlanta, GA 30322 USA
[4] Boston Univ, Sch Publ Hlth, Dept Biostat, Boston, MA 02118 USA
关键词
minicolumns; density map; cerebral cortex; primate brain; modeling;
D O I
10.1073/pnas.0407002101
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
Many age-related declines in cognitive function are attributed to the prefrontal cortex, area 46 being especially critical. Yet in normal aging, studies indicate that neurons are not lost in area 46, suggesting that impairments result from more subtle processes. One cortical feature that is functionally important, but that has not been examined in normal aging because of a lack of efficient quantitative methods, is the vertical arrangement of neurons into microcolumns, a fundamental computational unit of the cortex. By using a density-map method derived from condensed-matter physics, we quantified microcolumns in area 46 of seven young and seven aged rhesus monkeys that had been cognitively tested. This analysis demonstrated that there is no age-related reduction in total neuronal density or in microcolumn width, length, or periodicity. There was, however, a statistically significant decrease in the strength of microcolumns, indicating microcolumnar disorganization. This reduction in strength was significantly correlated with age-related cognitive decline on tests of spatial working memory and recognition memory independent of the effect of age. Modeling demonstrated that random neuron displacements of approximate to30% of a neuronal diameter (<3 mum) produced the observed reduction in strength. Hence, it is possible that, with changes in dendrites and myelinated axons, subtle displacements of neurons occur that alter microcolumnar structure and correlate with age-induced dysfunction. Therefore, quantitative measurement of microcolumnar structure may provide a sensitive morphological method to assay microcolumnar function in aging and other conditions.
引用
收藏
页码:15846 / 15851
页数:6
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