The shapes of brain waste: Mysteries of cellular remnant morphology in neurodegeneration

Abstract

This meditation with apologies by a psychiatrist who is not a neuropathologist but attends CPCs of movement disorder patients speculates about how microscopic mechanical processes produce the variety of cellular neuropathological forms, which differ with diagnoses, and wonders what may be revealed by the shapes of these traces by future neuropathologists. New discoveries about tiny machines, nanotubules and the like only increase the intrigue and possibilities of revelations, likened to a crime scene investigation.