Abstract
Vacuolation in the human cerebral cortex resulting from swelling of cell processes after death was measured in electron micrographs in material obtained up to 69 h post mortem from subjects with no known neurological abnormality. Vacuolation increased significantly up to 30-35 h after death and then to decrease. Accompanying this change was a significant reduction in the numbers of recognizable synapses which probably resulted from compression due to the vacuolation rather than from post-mortem disintegration.