Journal article
Age-related reduction in microcolumnar structure in area 46 of the rhesus monkey correlates with behavioral decline
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, v 101(45), pp 15846-15851
09 Nov 2004
PMID: 15520373
Abstract
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 ≈30% of a neuronal diameter (<3 μm) 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.
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Details
- Title
- Age-related reduction in microcolumnar structure in area 46 of the rhesus monkey correlates with behavioral decline
- Creators
- Luis Cruz - Center for Polymer Studies and Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215Daniel L Roe - Center for Polymer Studies and Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215Brigita Urbanc - Center for Polymer Studies and Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215Howard Cabral - Center for Polymer Studies and Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215H. E Stanley - Center for Polymer Studies and Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215Douglas L Rosene - Center for Polymer Studies and Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215
- Publication Details
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, v 101(45), pp 15846-15851
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Physics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000225196800006
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-8644225702
- Other Identifier
- 991014878049504721
InCites Highlights
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Neurosciences