Auditory cortex asymmetry in normals and schizophrenics

描述(申请人提供)：人类大脑皮层具有明显的大脑半球不对称的语言功能。上颞面有可能与语言功能相关的解剖不对称。然而，解剖不对称的详细细胞构筑特征尚不清楚，我们建议利用最近发展起来的免疫细胞化学工具来识别颞上平面的听区，并确定它们是否具有可靠的细胞构筑不对称。 颞骨上平面不对称改变是神经和精神疾病的一个特征。精神分裂症患者的大脑以大脑半球不对称性的改变为特征，这种改变在上颞叶平面尤为明显。此外，有证据表明精神分裂症患者大脑中的神经元密度和神经元迁移发生了变化，但尚不清楚这些变化是否与大脑半球不对称性的变化有关。我们建议测量已识别区域的体积，以及这些区域中灰质和白质中的神经元密度，以确定这些特征在正常大脑中是否不对称分布，以及它们在精神分裂症大脑中是否发生变化。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The human cerebral cortex has a pronounced hemispheric asymmetry for language function. The superior temporal plane has anatomical asymmetries that might correlate with language function. However, the detailed cytoarchitectonic features of the anatomical asymmetry are poorly understood, We propose to take advantage of recently developed immunocytochemical tools to identify auditory regions of the superior temporal plane, and to determine if they have reliable cytoarchitectonic asymmetries. Altered asymmetry of the superior temporal plane is a feature of neurological and psychiatric diseases. Schizophrenic brains are characterized by alterations in hemispheric asymmetry that are especially pronounced in the superior temporal plane. Additionally, there is evidence for altered neuron density and neuron migration in the schizophrenic brain, but it is unknown if these changes correlate with the altered hemispheric asymmetry. We propose to measure the volume of identified areas, and the neuron densities in the gray matter and white matter in those areas, to determine if these features are asymmetrically distributed in normal brains, and if they are changed in the schizophrenic brains.