Annals of Neurology · 1986 · 282 citations · 24 references
The study quantified dendritic branching in the visual cortex of 8 Down's syndrome children and 10 controls (ages 4 months–7 years, divided into infantile, late‑infantile, and juvenile groups) by analyzing camera‑lucida drawings of Golgi‑impregnated neurons for intersections, branching points, branch orders, segment counts, and total length. Dendritic intersections and total length were above normal in infants but fell to significantly below normal by the juvenile stage in Down's syndrome children, contrasting with the expanding dendritic arborization of typical children and suggesting early‑childhood dendritic atrophy.
Abstract Dendritic branching was evaluated in the visual cortex of 8 children with Down's syndrome and 10 controls, ranging in age from 4 months to 7 years and divided into infantile, late‐infantile, and juvenile groups. Camera lucida drawings of Golgi‐impregnated neurons were used for examining the following dendritic aspects: dendritic intersections as a function of distance from the cell body, point of maximum dendritic branching, number of branch orders, total number of branch segments, and total dendritic length. The number of intersections and the total dendritic length were above normal in the infantile period (6 months old or less) and dropped steadily to significantly below normal in the juvenile group (older than 2 years). These reductions contrasted with expanding dendritic arborization in normal children. The results suggest that the dendritic tree atophies in early childhood in Down's syndrome.
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Pattern Discrimination and the Visual Cortex
D. A. Sholl, A.M. Uttley · Nature · 1953 · 592 citations