Development of O4+/O1- immunopanned pro-oligodendroglia in vitro.

In this study, O4+/O1- pro-oligodendroglia isolated by immunopanning from cerebral hemispheres of P3-P5 rats were evaluated during their maturation in culture. Immunopanning yielded 3-4 x 10(5) cells/cerebrum, with 98% O4+ and 6% O1+. There was heterogeneity in the morphologies of immunopanned cells ranging from simple bipolar cells to more complex multipolar cells.

Resolution of parental bereavement after a perinatal loss.

This is a follow-up study of 25 middle-class, expectant, married couples who had experienced a perinatal loss (16 miscarriages, seven stillbirths, and two neonatal deaths) within the previous 2 years and who subsequently gave birth to a healthy child. The Perinatal Bereavement Scale (PBS) had been previously completed during the 8th month of the subsequent pregnancy and at 6 weeks postnatally. In this study, the PBS was completed 16 months after the birth of the subsequent child.

Brain-imaging approaches in psychiatry: early developmental considerations.

Recent advances in the neurosciences have provided important new approaches to understanding mental illness. Historically, the application of these approaches has followed patterns that parallel the scientific process of repeated testing and reexamination. In the investigation of schizophrenia, this process has focused particular attention on the frontal lobes.

Perinatal loss and parental bereavement.

The authors studied 25 middle-class pregnant women and their husbands who had experienced perinatal losses (16 miscarriages, seven stillbirths, and two neonatal deaths) within the previous 2 years. The Perinatal Bereavement Scale was designed to determine whether parents who have experienced a late perinatal loss (stillbirth or neonatal death) display more unresolved grief during a subsequent pregnancy and during the postnatal period than parents who have experienced a miscarriage. A three-factor repeated measures analysis of variance indicated significantly greater grief for the late-loss group, for the mothers, and during the pregnancy preceding the birth of the viable child.

Increased temporal lobe glucose use in chronic schizophrenic patients.

Temporal lobe glucose metabolic rate was assessed in 21 off-medication patients with schizophrenia and 19 normal controls by positron emission tomography with 18F-deoxyglucose. Patients with schizophrenia had significantly greater metabolic activity in the left than the right anterior temporal lobe, and the extent of this lateralization was in proportion to the severity of psychopathology.

Antisomatostatin IgG in major depressive disorder. A preliminary study with implications for an autoimmune mechanism of depression.

IgG reactive with somatostatin 1-14 was identified in human plasma by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. From a sample of 25 subjects, six (60%) of ten individuals with major depressive disorder demonstrated antibody reactive with somatostatin 1-14, in contrast to one (7%) of 15 controls. Overall, antisomatostatin reactivity was significantly higher in patients with major depressive disorder (0.

Human antiidiotypic antibody against opiate receptors.

Sera containing antibodies to beta-endorphin from 2 patients with major depressive disorder were shown to have antidiotypic antibodies that specifically inhibited reactivity between anti-beta-endorphin IgG and beta-endorphin. Autologous and homologous antiidiotypic anti-anti-beta-endorphin IgG antibodies were isolated by affinity chromatography. The purified antiidiotypic antibody did not bind beta-endorphin but competed with [125I]beta-endorphin for rat brain opiate receptors.

Clinical neuroscience approaches in psychiatry.

Recent advances in the clinical neurosciences have begun to expand and change our understanding of how the brain functions. As further neuroscientific principles are delineated we may gain insights into the underlying pathophysiology of some psychiatric disorders and through this new understanding we may be able to define new therapeutic interventions. Two illustrative examples of neuroscientific research are discussed and reviewed both in terms of the promises and dangers inherent in these new approaches to the mind.

Computed electroencephalographic activity mapping in schizophrenia. The resting state reconsidered.

Several topographic mapping studies of electroencephalographic (EEG) power spectra have reported increased slow (delta) activity in the frontal regions of schizophrenic patients. Using supraorbital and lateral canthus electrodes to detect eye movement, we deleted EEG epochs during eye movement in 15 medication-free patients with schizophrenia and in 13 normal control subjects. Power spectral analysis of the 28-channel EEG demonstrated a diffuse mild increase in delta activity in schizophrenic patients compared with normal control subjects but no tendency for frontal localization of this slow activity.

Dysfunction in a prefrontal substrate of sustained attention in schizophrenia.

Regional brain metabolism was measured in normal subjects and patients with schizophrenia while they performed an auditory discrimination task designed to emphasize sustained attention. A direct relationship was found in the normal subjects between metabolic rate in the middle prefrontal cortex and accuracy of performance. The metabolic rate in the middle prefrontal cortex of patients with schizophrenia, even those who performed as well as normals, was found to be significantly lower than normal and unrelated to performance.

Topographic differences between normals and schizophrenics: the N120 evoked potential component.

Topographic differences in evoked potentials were measured in 20 off-medication chronic schizophrenics and 24 normal controls. Four intensities of brief electrical shocks were administered to the subject's right forearm in a random order at 1-second intervals. Evoked potentials (EPs) were recorded from the scalp over the left hemisphere.

Positron emission tomography in schizophrenic patients with and without neuroleptic medication.

Positron emission tomography using [18F]2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose was performed in nine chronic schizophrenic patients both when medication-free and when medicated with neuroleptics. Total brain cortex, temporal cortex, and basal ganglia glucose use was significantly increased with medication; however, there was no change in anterior/posterior metabolic gradients.

Structure and function: brain electrical activity mapping and computed tomography in schizophrenia.

A computerized topographic technique that maps brain electrical activity is applied to the investigation of neurophysiological abnormalities in medicated and drug-free schizophrenic patients. This topographic approach uses EEG and evoked potentials to provide functional measures of electrophysiological abnormalities. Neurophysiological differences between schizophrenic patients and controls are delineated which add further evidence that frontal lobe dysfunction may be relevant to our understanding of schizophrenia.

Clinical correlates of decreased anteroposterior metabolic gradients in positron emission tomography (PET) of schizophrenic patients.

The finding in schizophrenic patients of a reversal of the normal frontal to posterior pattern of brain metabolic activity with positron emission tomography (PET) is of interest, but its relevance to psychopathology is unknown. Using PET, the authors studied 21 patients with chronic schizophrenia and 21 age- and sex-matched control subjects. Although eight of the 21 patients and only one of the control subjects showed a relatively lower anteroposterior metabolic gradient, no clinical correlates of this finding were noted.

Anteroposterior gradients in cerebral glucose use in schizophrenia and affective disorders.

Local cerebral uptake of deoxyglucose labeled with fluorine 18 was measured by positron emission tomography in 16 patients with schizophrenia and 11 patients with affective disorder. Patients received no medication a minimum of 14 days and an average of 39.8 days.

The Genain Quadruplets: electrophysiological, positron emission, and X-ray tomographic studies.

Four 51-year-old monozygotic quadruplets concordant for schizophrenia, originally studied at the National Institute of Mental Health 25 years ago, were restudied with topographic electroencephalography (EEG), evoked potentials (EPs), computed tomography (CT scans), polysomnographic sleep recordings, and positron emission tomography (PET) with 18F-2-deoxyglucose. EEG and EP findings were consistent with those from other groups of patients with schizophrenia and showed great similarity within the quadruplets. CT scans revealed uniformly small lateral ventricles.

Adrenal medulla grafts survive and exhibit catecholamine-specific fluorescence in the primate brain.

Parkinson's disease most consistently involves pathologic changes in the substantia nigra, which is the major source of dopamine to the striatum. It has been shown that either fetal substantia nigra or adrenal medulla tissue implanted into the rat brain survives, produces dopamine, and improves behavioral abnormalities induced by deprivation of the caudate nucleus of its dopaminergic innervation. Thus, catecholamine-containing grafts could be potential replacements for destroyed or damaged dopaminergic neurons in patients with Parkinson's disease.