Alzheimer's Disease: Cell-Specific Pathology Isolates the Hippocampal Formation

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 225; no. 4667; pp. 1168 - 1170
• Main Authors: Hyman, Bradley T., Van Hoesen, Gary W., Damasio, Antonio R., Barnes, Clifford L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC The American Association for the Advancement of Science 14.09.1984; American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Aged; Alzheimer Disease - pathology; Alzheimer's disease; Alzheimers disease; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Brain research; Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases; Entorhinal cortex; Forebrain; Hippocampus; Hippocampus (Brain); Hippocampus - pathology; Humans; Medical sciences; Memory; Middle Aged; Nervous system diseases; Neurofibrillary tangles; Neurology; Neurons; Neurons - pathology; Neuroscience; Pathology; Physiological aspects; Human; Pathology; Nervous system diseases; Alzheimer disease; Autopsy; Brain (Vertebrata); Degenerative disease; Hippocampus; Geriatrics
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.6474172

Examination of temporal lobe structures from Alzheimer patients reveals a specific cellular pattern of pathology of the subiculum of the hippocampal formation and layers II and IV of the entorhinal cortex. The affected cells are precisely those that interconnect the hippocampal formation with the association cortices, basal forebrain, thalamus, and hypothalamus, structures crucial to memory. This focal pattern of pathology isolates the hippocampal formation from much of its input and output and probably contributes to the memory disorder in Alzheimer patients.