Morphology and classification of large neurons in the adult human dentate nucleus: A qualitative and quantitative analysis of 2D images

Abstract

The dentate nucleus represents the most lateral of the four cerebellar nuclei that serve as major relay centres for fibres coming from the cerebellar cortex. Although many relevant findings regarding to the structure, neuronal morphology and cytoarchitectural development of the dentate nucleus have been presented so far, very little quantitative information has been collected on the types of large neurons in the human dentate nucleus. In the present study we qualitatively analyze our sample of large neurons according to their morphology and topology, and classify these cells into four types. Then, we quantify the morphology of such cell types taking into account seven morphometric parameters which describe the main properties of the cell soma, dendritic field and dendrite arborization. By performing appropriate statistics we prove out our classification of the large dentate neurons in the adult human. To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first attempt of quantitative analysis of morphology and classification of the large neurons in the adult human dentate nucleus.