[Electron-microscopic analysis of cytoarchitectonic disorders in the cerebral cortex in schizophrenia].

Microscopy and electron microscopy were used to examine foci of neuronal loss in the 2nd-3rd layers of the prefrontal cortex of the autopsy brain from 8 schizophrenic patients and 8 controls without any mental pathology. No signs of gliosis were identified. Foci of neuronal loss showed multiple accumulations of the thin bundles of unmyelinated fibers not discovered in the control, dystrophic-changed astrocytes, swollen dendrites free of microtubules. The changes in synapses on dendritic spines and shafts in these areas of neuropile were discovered to be functional and dystrophic in nature.