Term: Golgi neuron

Definition: In 1874 Golgi described two kinds of distinctive large cells in the granular layer of the human cerebellar cortex. The first kind of nerve cell had a long, fusiform perikaryon that lay directly beneath the layer of Purkinje cell bodies and extended transversely across the folium. The second kind that he described was irregularly rounded or polygonal , almost as large as the Purkinje cell, and furnished with nuerous dendrites that, in contrast to those of the fusiform cells, tended predominantly to run into the molecular layer. In the present account we shall follow the traditional terminology and restrict the Golgi cells to the large stellate or polygonal cells that Golgi listed as his second group.