Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 14 June 1963:
Vol. 140. no. 3572, pp. 1186 - 1189
DOI: 10.1126/science.140.3572.1186
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Neuropathology of Certain Forms of Mental Retardation

Experiments on monkeys illustrate probable mechanisms of brain damage in human infants

William F. Windle 1

1 Laboratory of Perinatal Physiology, National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, Bethesda, Md., University of Puerto Rico, San Juan

In presenting the neuropathology of asphyxia neonatorum and some related conditions, as illustrated in experiments with monkeys (12), I have tried to make six principal points. (i) Newborn monkeys need not be asphyxiated to the point of terminal apnea to suffer structural brain damage. Mental retardation has not been proved, but neither has it been excluded, in these monkeys. (ii) Asphyxia neonatorum requiring resuscitation of the offspring, which otherwise would die, is associated with a remarkably constant syndrome of bilaterally symmetrical, nonhemorrhagic lesions in thalamic and brain-stem nuclei, mainly those of afferent systems. The individuals in this category clearly are retarded. (iii) Asphyxia neonatorum of this second degree may be associated with postpartum complications leading to neocortical atrophy, often of considerable magnitude. The individuals are markedly retarded, often palsied, epileptic, and in a few instances even comatose. (iv) Increased intrauterine pressure in the monkey during prolonged labor leads to fetal and postpartum depression, in connection with which cerebral cortical injury occurs in the absence of typical asphyxial lesions. (v) The relationship of cerebral hemorrhages to mental retardation is not clear, but their presence at autopsy probably signifies trauma during birth, or is an agonal artifact associated with death after postpartum depression. (vi) Finally, kernicterus, a condition in which bile pigment escapes into the brain tissues from the blood when the bilirubin level is high and when there is, in combination with it, some depressing factor such as asphyxia, has been produced in the newborn monkey. It, too, is associated with mental retardation.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Developmental Behaviors: Delayed Appearance in Monkeys Asphyxiated at Birth.
J. A. Sechzer, M. D. Faro, J. N. Barker, D. Barsky, S. Gutierrez, and W. F. Windle (1971)
Science 171, 1173-1175
   Abstract »    PDF »
Cerebral Hemorrhage in Relation to Birth Asphyxia.
W. F. Windle (1970)
Science 167, 1000-1002
   Abstract »    PDF »
Brain Damage at Birth: Functional and Structural Modifications With Time.
W. F. Windle (1968)
JAMA 206, 1967-1972
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)