Modular and laminar pathology of Brodmann’s area 37 in Alzheimer’s disease

Previous studies suggested a relationship between severity of symptoms and the degree of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) clustering in different areas of the cortex in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The posterior inferior temporal cortex or Brodmann’s area (BA 37) is involved in object naming and recognition memory. But the cellular architecture and connectivity and the NFT pathology of this cortex in AD received inadequate attention. In this report, we describe the laminar distribution and topography of NFT pathology of BA 37 in brains of AD patients by using Thionin staining for Nissl substance, Thioflavin-S staining for NFTs, and phosphorylated tau (AT8) immunohistochemistry. NFTs mostly occurred in cortical layers II, III, V and VI in the area 37 of AD brain. Moreover, NFTs appeared like a patch or in cluster pattern along the cortical layers III and V and within the columns of pyramidal cell layers. The abnormal, intensely labeled AT8 immunoreactive cells were clustered mainly in layers III and V. Based on previously published clinical correlations between cognitive abnormalities in AD and the patterns of laminar distributed NFT cluster pathology in other areas of the brain, we conclude that a similar NFT pathology that severely affected BA 37, may indicate disruption of some forms of naming and object recognition–related circuits in human AD.