Figure 5.

Pyramidal cells of the human cerebral cortex. (A) Drawing made by Golgi to illustrate a pyramidal cell of the human motor cortex stained with the Golgi method. The axon appears in red. Taken from Golgi (1882–1883). (B) Drawing made by Cajal to illustrate a pyramidal cell of the human motor cortex. a, initial part of the axon; b, dendrites; d, axonal collaterals. Taken from Cajal (1899). (C) Drawing by Cajal to illustrate the dendritic spines of pyramidal cells (cerebral cortex of a 2-month-old child). Taken from Cajal (1933). Note that Golgi does not draw dendritic spines. However, in the drawing of Cajal shown in (B) it can be seen that the surface of the dendrites are covered with dendrites spines. (D) photomicrograph of a preparation of Cajal of the human motor cortex (15-day-old child) stained using the Golgi method. The image illustrates an apical dendrite of a layer V pyramidal cell covered with spines. Scale bar (in D): 8 μm. The histological image was obtained by Pablo García-López, Virginia García-Marín and Miguel Freire (Legado Cajal, Instituto Cajal). Taken from DeFelipe (2014).