Basket cell

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Neuron: Basket cell
Transverse section of a cerebellar folium (Basket cell labeled at bottom left)
Location	Cerebellum
Function	Inhibitory interneuron
Morphology	multipolar
Presynaptic connections	Parallel fibers
Postsynaptic connections	Purkinje cells
NeuroLex ID	nifext_160
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Basket cells are inhibitory GABAergic interneurons found in several brain regions: the molecular layer of the cerebellum, the hippocampus, and the cortex.

Cerebellum

Micrograph of cerebellar cortex showing Purkinje cells within the baskets formed by the processes of basket cells. Bielschowsky stain.

In the cerebellum, they synapse on the cell bodies of Purkinje cells, and are multipolar and stellate, with freely branching dendrites, which are dilated and knotty.

Hippocampus

Hippocampal basket cells target somata and proximal dendrites of pyramidal neurons. Cortical^[1] and hippocampal basket cells are parvalbumin-expressing and fast-spiking.

Cortex

In the cortex, basket cells have sparsely branched axons giving off small pericellular, basket-shaped elaborations at several intervals along their length. There are three types of basket cells in the cortex, the small, large and nest type^[2]: The axon of a small basket cell arborizes in the vicinity of that same cells dendritic range. In contrast, large basket cells innervate somata in different cortical columns. The nest basket cells are an intermediate form of the small and large cells, their axons are confined mainly to the same cortical layer as their somata.

Additional images

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  Microcircuitry of the cerebellum. Excitatory synapses are denoted by (+) and inhibitory synapses by (-). Basket cell labeled BC.

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  Cerebellum.

External links

• Cell Centered Database - Cerebellar basket cell
• Basket+cell at eMedicine Dictionary
• NIF Search - Basket Cell via the Neuroscience Information Framework

Footnotes

1. ^ Contreras D.(2004). "Electrophysiological classes of neocortical neurons", Neural Networks 17(5-6), pp. 633-46.
2. ^ Fox, K. "Barrel Cortex", Cambridge University Press, pp. 55-56

References

• Jones, E. G. & Hendry, S. H.(1984). "Basket cells. In: Cellular components of the cerebral cortex", New York: Plenum Press, pp. 309-336

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