Brain Cell Types

Neurons (29)

• Alpha Motor Neuron: Large lower motor neuron whose axon drives skeletal muscle contraction; its degeneration or dysfunction is central to ALS and spinal muscular atrophy. — Acetylcholine
• Dopaminergic Neuron (Neuron dopaminergicum): Modulatory midbrain neuron whose dopamine release to striatum and cortex signals reward prediction error and enables smooth voluntary movement. — Dopamine
• Purkinje Cell (Cellula Purkinjei): The sole output neuron of the cerebellar cortex, a planar dendritic arbor bearing up to 200,000 spines, arranged in a single sheet between the granular and molecular layers. — GABA
• Pyramidal Cell (Cellula pyramidalis): The workhorse of cerebral cortex and hippocampus, a glutamatergic projection neuron with a single apical dendrite ascending toward the pia, several basal dendrites, and a long axon leaving the cortical plate. — Glutamate
• Serotonergic Neuron: Raphe neuromodulatory neuron that releases serotonin broadly across the brain, influencing mood, sleep, appetite, arousal, and behavior. — Serotonin
• Betz Cell (Cellula gigantopyramidalis): A subtype of layer V pyramidal neuron in primary motor cortex, among the largest neurons in the human central nervous system, with a soma up to 100 µm across. — Glutamate
• CA1 Pyramidal Cell (Cellula pyramidalis CA1): The principal output neuron of the hippocampus, gatekeeper of episodic memory and the cell whose firing patterns first revealed the brain's internal map of space. — Glutamate
• Granule Cell (Cellula granularis): The most abundant neuron in the brain, tiny, glutamatergic cerebellar cells whose parallel-fiber axons run orthogonally through the Purkinje dendritic array. — Glutamate
• Medium Spiny Neuron (Neuron spinosum medium): The projection neuron of the striatum, spiny, silent until excited, and split into two populations with opposing functions in action selection. — GABA
• Thalamic Relay Neuron (Neuron thalamicum): The gatekeeper neuron of cortex, almost every sensory modality, every cerebellar output, and every basal-ganglia signal passes through a thalamic relay on its way to cerebral cortex. — Glutamate
• Mitral & Tufted Cell (Cellula mitralis): The output neurons of the olfactory bulb, each one sampling a single odorant receptor channel out of the ~400 that constitute the human sense of smell. — Glutamate
• Mossy Cell: Excitatory hilar neuron of the dentate gyrus that shapes hippocampal excitability and is highly relevant to temporal lobe epilepsy. — Glutamate
• Cholinergic Neuron: Basal forebrain and brainstem acetylcholine neuron supporting attention, memory, arousal, and a central target of Alzheimer's disease research. — Acetylcholine
• Dorsal Root Ganglion Neuron: Peripheral sensory neuron whose cell body sits in a dorsal root ganglion and relays pain, touch, temperature, itch, and proprioception from the body to the spinal cord. — Glutamate
• Noradrenergic Neuron: Locus coeruleus norepinephrine neuron that modulates arousal, attention, stress responses, and brain-wide state changes. — Norepinephrine
• Retinal Ganglion Cell: The retina's output neuron; its axons form the optic nerve and are selectively damaged in glaucoma. — Glutamate
• Histaminergic Neuron: Tuberomammillary histamine neuron that promotes wakefulness; blocking histamine signaling explains the sedation caused by many older antihistamines. — Histamine
• Orexin / Hypocretin Neuron: Lateral hypothalamic orexin neuron that stabilizes wakefulness; loss of these neurons causes narcolepsy type 1. — Orexin
• Spiral Ganglion Neuron: Primary auditory neuron that carries hair-cell signals to the brainstem and is the neural target pathway for cochlear implants. — Glutamate
• Von Economo Neuron: Large spindle-shaped projection neuron enriched in layer 5 of anterior cingulate and fronto-insular cortex; notable for links to social-emotional/salience processing and selective loss in frontotemporal dementia. Not human-specific (also great apes, some cetaceans and elephants). — Glutamate
• Cortical Interneuron (general) (Neuron intercalatus): Local GABAergic neurons that shape the timing, gain, and synchrony of cortical circuits. Diverse in form: basket, chandelier, Martinotti, bipolar, each targeting a different compartment of the pyramidal cell. — GABA
• Basket Cell: GABAergic interneuron that wraps inhibitory synapses around principal-cell somata and helps generate fast network rhythms. — GABA
• Chandelier Cell: GABAergic interneuron that targets the axon initial segment of pyramidal cells, giving it strong control over spike output. — GABA
• Martinotti Cell: Somatostatin cortical interneuron that sends axons toward layer I to inhibit pyramidal-cell apical dendrites. — GABA
• Bipolar / Bitufted Interneuron: Often a VIP-expressing cortical interneuron type that can disinhibit pyramidal cells by inhibiting other interneurons. — GABA
• Lugaro Cell: Cerebellar inhibitory interneuron strongly modulated by serotonin and positioned near the Purkinje cell layer. — GABA
• Unipolar Brush Cell: Specialized excitatory interneuron of the cerebellar granule layer and cochlear nucleus that amplifies local sensory (mossy-fiber) signals. — Glutamate
• Cajal-Retzius Cell: Transient developmental cortical neuron that secretes Reelin and helps organize cortical lamination. — Glutamate
• Subplate Neuron: Early-born transient cortical neuron that guides thalamocortical wiring and early cortical network activity. — Glutamate

Glia (11)

• Radial Glia (neurogenic): Embryonic neural stem/progenitor cell (a glial-type cell, not a neuron) that generates cortical neurons and glia and forms a scaffold for migrating neurons during cortical development.
• Astrocyte (Astrocytus protoplasmaticus): A single human astrocyte contacts up to two million synapses, recycles their glutamate, buffers their potassium, and ensheathes the capillaries that feed them.
• Oligodendrocyte (Oligodendrocytus): The CNS myelin-maker. A single oligodendrocyte can wrap up to 50 axonal segments, lifting conduction velocity from ~1 m/s on bare axons to ~100 m/s on myelinated ones.
• Schwann Cell (Cellula Schwanni): The peripheral nervous system's myelin-maker, one Schwann cell per axonal internode, and a remarkable capacity for regeneration after injury.
• Oligodendrocyte Precursor (OPC) (NG2 cell): The fourth major glial class, and the only glia that receive bona fide synaptic input from neurons, allowing activity to drive adaptive myelination throughout life.
• Bergmann Glia: Specialized unipolar astrocytes of the cerebellum, with somata in the Purkinje cell layer and long radial processes spanning the molecular layer to the pia; they ensheath Purkinje-cell synapses, clear glutamate, and scaffold granule-cell migration.
• Mueller Glia: The principal radial glial cells of the retina, the only cell type spanning its entire thickness; they provide structural and metabolic support, maintain retinal homeostasis, and act as living optical fibers guiding light to the photoreceptors.
• Tanycyte: Hypothalamic ependymal-glial cell lining the third ventricle that senses CSF- and blood-borne metabolic and hormonal signals and helps regulate energy balance.
• Microglia (Microglia): The CNS's resident immune cell, not from neural tube or bone marrow, but from primitive yolk-sac macrophages that colonise the brain at embryonic day 8.5 and stay for life.
• Ependymal Cell: Multiciliated ventricular lining cell that helps move cerebrospinal fluid; ciliary dysfunction can contribute to hydrocephalus.
• Choroid Plexus Epithelial Cell: Blood-CSF barrier epithelial cell that secretes cerebrospinal fluid and regulates the chemical environment of the ventricles.

Immune (1)

• Perivascular Macrophage: A CNS border-associated macrophage residing in the perivascular (Virchow-Robin) space around brain blood vessels, where it surveys the vascular interface, clears debris, and helps regulate neuroimmune responses at the blood-brain barrier.

Vascular (3)

• Endothelial Cell (Cellula endothelialis): The cells lining cerebral capillaries, sealed by continuous tight junctions and largely stripped of the vesicular transcytosis machinery used by endothelium elsewhere in the body. The structural basis of the blood-brain barrier.
• Pericyte (Pericytus): Contractile mural cells embedded in the capillary basement membrane, at a ~1:3 ratio to brain endothelium, versus ~1:100 in muscle, essential for BBB induction and capillary tone.
• Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell: Contractile mural cells that wrap the walls of cerebral arteries and arterioles; by constricting or relaxing they set vessel diameter and vascular tone, regulating cerebral blood flow and contributing to neurovascular coupling.

Stromal (1)

• Meningeal Fibroblast: Stromal (connective-tissue) cells of the meninges - the dura, arachnoid, and pia - that produce extracellular matrix, give the meningeal layers their structure, and help organize the immune, vascular, and lymphatic niches at CNS borders.