1. The Molecular Layer (Stratum zonale).—This is made up of a large number of fine nerve branchings both medullated and non-medullated. The whole forms a close network, the fibres of which run chiefly a tangential course. The cells of this layer are the so-called cells of Cajal. They possess an irregular body, giving off 4 or 5 dendrites, which terminate within the molecular layer and a long nerve fibre process or neuraxon which runs parallel to the surface of the convolution.
2. The Layer of small Pyramidal Cells.—The typical cells of this layer are pyramid-shaped, the apices of the pyramids being directed towards the surface. The apex terminates in a dendron which reaches into the molecular layer, giving off several collateral horizontal branches in its course. The final branches in the molecular layer take a direction parallel to the surface. Smaller dendrites arise from the lateral and basal surfaces of these cells, but do not extend far from the body of the cell. The neuraxon always arises from the base of the cell and passes towards the central white matter, thus forming one of the nerve-fibres of that substance. In its path it gives off a number of collaterals at right angles, which are distributed to the adjacent grey matter.
 | |||
From Cunningham, Text-book of Anatomy. | |||
| Fig. 15.—Diagram to illustrate Minute Structure of the Cerebral Cortex. | |||
| A. | Neuroglia cells. | E. Small pyramidal cell. | |
| B. | F. Large pyramidal cell. | ||
| C. | Cell with short axon (N) which breaks | G. Cell of Martinotti. | |
| up in a free arborization. | H. Polymorphic cell. | ||
| D. | Spindle-shaped cell in stratum zonale. | K. Corticipetal fibres. | |
3. The Layer of large Pyramidal Cells.—This is characterized by the presence of numbers of cells of the same type as those of the preceding layer, but of larger size. The nerve-fibre process becomes a medullated fibre of the white matter.
4. The Layer of Polymorphous Cells.—The cells of this layer are irregular in outline, and give off several dendrites branching into the surrounding grey matter. The neuraxon gives off a number of collaterals, and then becomes a nerve-fibre of the central white matter.
Scattered through these three layers there are also a number of cells (cells of Golgi) whose neuraxon divides at once, the divisions terminating within the immediate vicinity of the cell-body. Some cells are also found in which the neuraxon, instead of running into the white matter of the brain, passes toward the surface; these are called cells of Martinotti.
The medullated nerve-fibres of the white matter when traced into the cortex are seen to enter in bundles set vertically to the surface. These bundles taper and are resolved into isolated fibres in the upper parts of the pyramidal layers. The fibres constituting the bundles form two sets. (a) The centrifugal fibres consist as above described of the fibre processes of the pyramidal and polymorphous cells. (b) The centripetal fibres ascend through the cortex to terminate within the molecular layer by horizontally running branches. As they pass through they give off a number of collaterals. The position of the cells from which these fibres arise is not known. In addition to the radially arranged bundles of fibres, networks are formed by the interlacement with them of large numbers of fine medullated fibres running tangentially to the surface. These are derived chiefly from the collaterals of the pyramidal cells and of the centripetal fibres. They form two specially marked bundles, one within the layer of the polymorphous cells known as the inner band of Baillarger, and another in the layer of large pyramidal cells called the outer band of Baillarger. This latter is very thick in the calcarine region, and forms the white stria of Gennin, while the inner band is best seen in the precentral gyrus. As both these strands cross the already mentioned radial bundles at right angles, they are regarded as specialized parts of an interradial reticulum of fibres, but, nearer the surface than the radial bundles penetrate, tangential fibres are found, and here they are called the supraradial reticulum. In certain parts of the brain the fibres of this reticulum are more closely set, and form the band of Bechterew in the superficial part of the small pyramidal cell zone.
|
From The Museum Catalogue of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. |
| Fig. 16.—Brain of Petromyzon marinus (dorsal view). A, Brain; B, choroid plexus removed. |
For further information on the structure of the cerebral cortex, see A. W. Campbell, Proc. R. Soc. vols. lxxii. and lxxiv.
Comparative Anatomy.
A useful introduction to the study of the vertebrate brain is that of the Amphioxus, one of the lowest of the Chordata or animals having a notochord. Here the brain is a very slightly modified part of the dorsal tubular nerve-cord, and, on the surface, shows no distinction from the rest of that cord. When a section is made the central canal is seen to be enlarged into a cavity, the neurocoele, which, in the young animal, communicates by an opening, the neuropore, with the bottom of the olfactory pit, and so with the exterior. More ventrally another slight diverticulum probably represents the infundibulum. The only trace of an eye is a patch of pigment at the anterior end of the brain, and there are no signs of any auditory apparatus. There are only two pairs of cerebral nerves, both of which are sensory (Willey, Amphioxus, 1894). In the Cyclostomata, of which the lamprey (Petromyzon) is an example, the minute brain is much more complex, though it is still only a very slight enlargement of the anterior end of the cord. The single cavity seen in Amphioxus is here subdivided into three: an anterior or prosencephalon, a middle or mesencephalon, and a hinder or rhombencephalon. The rhombencephalon has a very slight transverse thickening in the fore-part of its roof, this is the rudimentary cerebellum (Cer.); the rest of this part of the brain is taken up by the large medulla, the cavity of which is the fossa rhomboidalis or fourth ventricle. This fossa is roofed over by the epithelium lining the cavity of the ventricle, by pia mater and blood-vessels constituting a choroid plexus (fig. 16, B). The fourth ventricle communicates with the parts in front by means of a passage known as the aqueduct of Sylvius.
The mesencephalon or mid-brain, when looked at from the dorsal surface, shows a pair of large hollow swellings, the optic lobes or corpora bigemina. Their cavities open out from the aqueduct of
