The effect of aging on the neuronal population within area 17 of adult rat cerebral cortex

The brains of Sprague-Dawley rats in various age groups from 3 to 33 months were fixed by perfusion with standard aldehyde solutions in order to determine the effects of aging on neuronal numbers. Several indices of cortical volume were then measured to determine whether neuronal packing densities were affected by age-related change in cortical volume. The lengths, heights and widths of individual hemispheres for 160 animals ranging in age from 1 day to 36 months were first determined, after which blocks of tissue were removed from area 17 of some of the brains. These blocks were osmicated, embedded in Araldite and sectioned at 1 micrometer to ascertain, in the vertical plane, the thickness of area 17 and, in the tangential plane, the packing density of the clusters of apical dendrites extending from layer V pyramidal neurons. Results indicate the overall dimensions of the cerebral hemispheres increased until 3 months of age, after which there was no further increase in size. Between 3 and 33 months of age there was no age-related change in either the thickness of area 17 or in the separation between dendritic clusters, indicating the volume of area 17 did not change after 3 months of age. Within individual age groups the amount of variation present is greater than that among age groups. Since the number of nucleus-containing neuronal profiles per unit area of layers II/III, IV, V, VIa and VIb was similar in two groups of three animals at 3 and 33 months of age and the diameters of neuronal nuclei were unchanged, there seems to be no significant change in the number of neurons contained in these layers of rat visual cortex between 3 and 33 months of age. It is therefore concluded that no neurons are lost from area 17 as the mature cerebral cortex ages.