Characterization of Pyramidal Cells in Layer III of Brodmann Area 46 in Schizophrenia and Depression - A Postmortem Study of Human Autopsy Brains

2021.06.09 | Graduate School of Health

On Friday 25 June at 14.00, Nick Yin Larsen defends his PhD dissertation entitled "Characterization of Pyramidal Cells in Layer III of Brodmann Area 46 in Schizophrenia and Depression - A Postmortem Study of Human Autopsy Brains".

Schizophrenia and major depression disorder (MDD) are neuropsychiatric disorders that impair the thoughts, emotions, behavior of patients and increase the risk of suicide. Different medical imaging techniques and histological studies have confirmed structural and functional differences in brains from patients with schizophrenia and MDD. Patients with these diseases show an abnormal activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, including Brodmann Area 46 (BA46). The irregular brain activity in BA46 could be caused by changes in the 3-dimensional (3D) size, shape, number and spatial distribution of pyramidal cells in the human cerebral cortex.

Morphological differences in layer III of BA46 were examined in human autopsy brains from four groups:  healthy control subjects, subjects with schizophrenia, suicidal subjects with a history of depression and subjects with MDD without committing suicide.

Two new methods were successfully developed to investigate neurons in 3D by advanced sampling methods and artificial intelligence, measure their structural properties, quantify neuronal organization and estimate volume tensors in a more efficient way. Differences in pyramidal cell number, number density and cell volume were discovered and the spatial pattern analysis showed that the pyramidal cells were either arranged into columnar structures or had some repulsive behavior against one other. These findings show that neurons are not randomly arranged in 3D space but instead follow a complex pattern.

The summary is written by the PhD student.   

The defence is public and takes place online.  Please read the attached press release for more information.

Contact:

PhD student Nick Yin Larsen

Mail: nylarsen@clin.au.dk 

Phone: (+45) 51307019

Read full press release