Human brain imaging post-mortem - Whole hemisphere technologies

The use of whole post-mortem human brain hemispheres for the studies of the biochemical neuroanatomy is described. Cryosections prepared from whole hemispheres have been successfully used for in vitro radioligand autoradiography, in situ hybridization histochemistry and histochemistry. Functional autoradiography using 5-HT_1A receptor stimulated [³⁵S]GTPγS binding and volume rendering of images from radioligand autoradiography to describe the distribution of D₂/D₃ dopamine receptors in three dimensions are also discussed. A detailed characterization of the biochemical neuroanatomy of several neuronal components can thus be obtained simultaneously in all regions in the normal and diseased brain, resulting in an extensive information on the human brain morphology and biochemistry.