Stereology of the Human Caudate Nucleus

Precise and unbiased quantitative estimations are often necessary in biomedical sciences. Stereological procedures, which were first applied in the 1970s, are widely used nowadays. Our study assessed a number of quantitative estimators to characterize a well-defined human brain structure, the caudate nucleus (CN), using magnetic resonance (MR) and histological images, i.e., CN volume and number and volume of neurons in the CN. The study emphasizes the importance of precise sampling of the human CN, for which well-known stereological tools such as the Cavalieri, disector, nucleator, and point-sampled intercept methods were used. The article offers a detailed description of the process followed to obtain simple, exact, and punctual data—a CN volume of 3.9 cm3, a total of 234 · 106 neurons, and a neuronal volume of roughly 1200 μm3. It also provides guidelines and describes conditions and limitations for applying these stereological methods.