History of neuromorphometry

Abstract

The history of morphometry begins in the middle of the last century. At the turn of the century impulses had decreased. The alterations arising during the preparation of the tissues were almost unknown. For example, the dogma of the loss of neurons during aging was conditioned by age-dependent histological shringage of the brain. Beginning in the thirties of this century new thoughts have given impulses to new morphometric investigation. In the neurosciences important impulses came from Bok. In 1961 Elias introduced the term "stereology" as a new interdisciplinary science in order to communicate the different developments. Since 1970 the computer and image analysis have brought a new dimension to morphometric research. This paper describes some neuromorphometrical developments. An increasing accuracy of results regarding density and amount of neurons can be estimated with facilitated counting procedures. A similar development can be observed for the estimation of neuronal sizes and their size distribution as well as for the volume-parts of the average perikaryon volume fraction (grey cell coefficient). The morphometry of dendritic tree and the ultrastructure of neuropil are briefly mentioned.