These two lesions build up within the brain and ar an indication of the amount of damage caused by the disease. When scientists look at tissue sections in the microscope, they look at dozens of images similar to that shown above for each region of the brain being studied.
Many research projects require that the number of plaques and tangles be quantified.
In fact, researchers at the Institute were able to shown that there is a strong correlation between the number and size of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles within the brains of Alzheimer's patients. When we first started using computerized imaging as an approach to quantify the number of plaques and tangles present within a brain, we were limited to black and white imaging. The pair of images above shows the quantification of the -amyloid within plaques. In the computer image on the right, we ask the computer to count the number of white pixels and the number of black pixels to give us an idea of how much area in the brain is occupied by -amyloid plaques. When we plot the amount of -amyloid versus the amount of memory impairments our Alzheimer's patient's had, we saw a surprising result .