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Pyramidal cells, or pyramidal neurons, are a type of multipolar neuron found in areas of the brain including the cerebral cortex, the hippocampus, and the amygdala. Pyramidal cells are the primary excitation units of the mammalian prefrontal cortex and the corticospinal tract .
These unique structures also help to demarcate CA3 from CA2. [1] [2] The pyramidal cells in CA3 send some axons back to the dentate gyrus hilus, but they mostly project to regions CA2 and CA1 via the Schaffer collaterals. There are also a significant number of recurrent connections that terminate in CA3.
Upper motor neurons represent the largest pyramidal cells in the motor regions of the cerebral cortex. The major cell type of the UMNs is the Betz cells residing in layer V of the primary motor cortex , located on the precentral gyrus in the posterior frontal lobe.
The pyramidal tracts are named because they pass through the pyramids of the medulla oblongata. The corticospinal fibers converge to a point when descending from the internal capsule to the brain stem from multiple directions, giving the impression of an inverted pyramid. Involvement of the pyramidal tract at any level leads to pyramidal signs.
The trisynaptic circuit is a neural circuit in the hippocampus, which is made up of three major cell groups: granule cells in the dentate gyrus, pyramidal neurons in CA3, and pyramidal neurons in CA1. The hippocampal relay involves 3 main regions within the hippocampus which are classified according to their cell type and projection fibers.
Schaffer collaterals are the axons of pyramidal cells that connect two neurons (CA3 and CA1) and transfer information from CA3 to CA1. [5] [6] The entorhinal cortex sends the main input to the dentate gyrus (perforant pathway). From the granule cells of the dentate gyrus, connections are made to the CA3 regions of the hippocampus via mossy fibers.
Pyramidal cells in CA1, for example, are 30 times as thick in humans as they are in rats. [14] The entorhinal cortex is also subdivided into as few as 8 and as many as 27 sections in humans (depending on the system used), whereas there are only 2 in rats and 7 in monkeys. [ 14 ]
Betz cells are not the sole source of direct connections to those neurons because most of the direct corticomotorneuronal cells are medium or small neurons. [3] While Betz cells have one apical dendrite typical of pyramidal neurons, they have more primary dendritic shafts, which can branch out at almost any point from the soma (cell body). [4]