Brain anatomy of persistent violent offenders: more rather than less

Most violent crimes in Western societies are committed by a small group of men who display antisocial behavior from an early age that remains stable across the life-span. It is not known if these men display abnormal brain structure. We compared regional brain volumes of 26 persistently violent offenders with antisocial personality disorder and substance dependence and 25 healthy men using magnetic resonance imaging volumetry and voxel-based morphometry (VBM). The violent offenders, as compared with the healthy men, had markedly larger white matter volumes, bilaterally, in the occipital and parietal lobes, and in the left cerebellum, and larger grey matter volume in right cerebellum (effect sizes up to 1.24, P<0.001). Among the offenders, volumes of these areas were not associated with psychopathy scores, substance abuse, psychotropic medication, or global IQ scores. By contrast, VBM analyses of grey matter revealed focal, symmetrical, bilateral areas of atrophy in the postcentral gyri, frontopolar cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex among the offenders as compared with the healthy men (z-scores as high as 5.06). Offenders with psychopathy showed the smallest volumes in these areas. The larger volumes in posterior brain areas may reflect atypical neurodevelopmental processes that underlie early-onset persistent antisocial and aggressive behavior.     

A morphometric MRI study of the hippocampus in first-episode, neuroleptic-naïve schizophrenia

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have frequently, although not unambiguously, reported hippocampal volume deficit in schizophrenia. Data on the hippocampal volumes in first-episode schizophrenia, however, are sparse. In addition, a recent topographic MRI study proposed a regionally specific volume loss in the hippocampus of chronic schizophrenics, but to date no reports have replicated this finding. In this study two-dimensional MRI-based topographic brain mapping was used to study the possibility of regional changes in the hippocampus of 22 controls and 18 patients with first-episode, neuroleptic-na?ve schizophrenia. Compared to controls, there were no significant differences between hippocampal volumes, regional volumes, or length of the hippocampus in the patients with schizophrenia. These data are at odds with the previous reports on hippocampal volume loss in first-episode schizophrenia, and with the hypothesis of regionally specific hippocampal volume deficit in schizophrenia.     

Magnetic resonance imaging of the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease

OBJECTIVES: To explore volume changes of the entorhinal cortex (ERC) and hippocampus in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared with normal cognition (NC); to determine the powers of the ERC and the hippocampus for discrimination between these groups. METHODS: This study included 40 subjects with NC, 36 patients with MCI, and 29 patients with AD. Volumes of the ERC and hippocampus were manually measured based on coronal T1 weighted MR images. Global cerebral changes were assessed using semiautomatic image segmentation. RESULTS: Both ERC and hippocampal volumes were reduced in MCI (ERC 13%, hippocampus 11%, p<0.05) and AD (ERC 39%, hippocampus 27%, p<0.01) compared with NC. Furthermore, AD showed greater volume losses in the ERC than in the hippocampus (p<0.01). In addition, AD and MCI also had cortical grey matter loss (p< 0.01) and ventricular enlargement (p<0.01) when compared with NC. There was a significant correlation between ERC and hippocampal volumes in MCI and AD (both p<0.001), but not in NC. Using ERC and hippocampus together improved discrimination between AD and CN but did not improve discrimination between MCI and NC. The ERC was better than the hippocampus for distinguishing MCI from AD. In addition, loss of cortical grey matter significantly contributed to the hippocampus for discriminating MCI and AD from NC. CONCLUSIONS: Volume reductions in the ERC and hippocampus may be early signs of AD pathology that can be measured using MRI.     

A voxel based morphometry study on mild cognitive impairment

BACKGROUND: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is the most widely used concept in classifying cognitive impairment in the elderly who do not fulfil the criteria for dementia. MCI is considered to confer an increased risk of progressing to dementia and most often Alzheimer's disease (AD). Various approaches such as imaging of the brain have been applied to predict the conversion of MCI to dementia. A number of volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have detected atrophy of the medial temporal lobe in subjects with MCI, but for the other cerebral regions the results have been inconsistent. OBJECTIVE: To study the pattern of brain atrophy in MCI. METHODS: Thirty two controls and 51 individuals with MCI deriving from population based cohorts were studied by MRI using voxel based morphometry. The threshold of t maps was set at p < 0.001. RESULTS: Individuals with MCI had significant unilateral atrophy in the medial temporal lobe on the right side. Less extensive atrophy was found elsewhere-for example, in the temporal lobe, left superior parietal lobule, left anterior cingulate gyrus, and bilaterally in the thalami. CONCLUSIONS: The MRI findings in MCI resemble those seen in early AD.     

Anatalline and other methyl jasmonate-inducible nicotine alkaloids from Nicotiana tabacum cv. By-2 cell cultures

Anatalline [2,4-di(3-pyridyl)piperidine] accumulation was shown to be induced by methyl jasmonate in Nicotiana tabacum cv. BY-2 cell cultures. Beside anatabine, anatalline represented the most abundant alkaloid, moreover, it was always present in two isomeric forms occurring always in similar concentrations. Both isomers could be completely separated by GC-MS. For structural analysis, the isolation of both isomers was performed using a semi-preparative HPLC system. The structures of anatalline [cis-2,4-di(3-pyridyl)piperidine] and its stereoisomer trans-2,4-di(3-pyridyl)piperidine were confirmed by MS and 1D and 2D NMR spectral data. The biosynthetic origin of anatalline was studied by feeding alkaloid precursors to BY-2 cell cultures.     

Decreased brain creatine levels in elderly apolipoprotein E ε4 carriers

Summary. Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genotype has been shown to influence results in neuroimaging studies using a number of various imaging modalities. No in vivo data exists on whether or not there are ApoE-related changes observable by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). In this study we measured absolute peak areas of proton MR spectra obtained from the occipital cortex in 22 non-demented elderly with (n = 8) or without (n = 14) the ApoE ε4 allele. No statistically significant differences were found in levels of N-acetyl aspartate, myo-inositol, or choline containing compounds between the groups. Instead, compared with the non-carriers, the levels of creatine were significantly lower in the ε4 carriers, suggesting increased metabolic demands in the brain of the ε4 carriers. The levels of creatine also correlated significantly with age and performance on the Mini-Mental State Examination test in the ε4 carriers, but not in the non-carriers. These findings may be of significant clinical interest as potential indicator of incipient AD, and also from therapeutical point of view given the potential neuroprotective effects of creatine. Received February 18, 2002; accepted August 5, 2002 Published online December 9, 2002 Acknowledgements This study was supported by the Research Council for Health of the Academy of Finland, the Finnish Neurology Foundation, the Instrumentarium Research Foundation, and the Farmos Research Foundation. Authors' address: M. Laakso, Department of Neurology, Bldg. 5, Kuopio University Hospital, P.O.Box 1777, 70211 Kuopio, Finland, e-mail: mikko.laakso@uku.fi Abbreviations AD Alzheimer's disease, ApoE apolipoprotein E, MI myo-inositol, MMSE Mini-Mental State Examination, MRI magnetic resonance imaging, MRS magnetic resonance spectroscopy, NAA N-acetyl aspartate.     

Alpha-synuclein pathology is highly dependent on the case selection

Lewy bodies and dystrophic neurites have been considered a common substrate for dementia, but they are also frequently found in the normal elderly population. The primary component of this pathology involves alpha-synuclein. The main objective of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of alpha-synuclein pathology in aged population, and to assess its relative significance in relation to dementia. The study also investigated whether differences could be detected in alpha-synuclein pathology in relation to age, gender or concomitant Alzheimer's pathology. Furthermore, the influence of sampling strategies was analysed. Alpha-synuclein pathology was assessed using immunohistochemistry in well-characterized post-mortem material. The investigation included patients from a longitudinal study of dementia of Alzheimer's type (n = 103, 85% demented), subjects from a prospective longitudinal clinical study of ageing (n = 69, 29% demented), a cohort of consecutive clinical post-mortem cases collected for 1 year (n = 262, 12% demented), a sample of forensic post-mortem cases collected for 6 months (n = 121, 15% demented) and a sample of Brain Bank material (n = 234, 26% demented). Overall, alpha-synuclein pathology was found in 14% of all 774 subjects over 40 years of age, and this percentage varied from 8% to 27% according to sampling strategies. These results indicate that the prevalence of alpha-synuclein pathology clearly depends on the selection of material. Furthermore alpha-synuclein pathology was found in 23% of clinically demented patients and in 11% of non-demented subjects. The load of alpha-synuclein pathology was significantly greater in the demented patients versus non-demented subjects indicating that alpha-synuclein pathology is indeed of importance in the pathogenesis of dementia.