A LEAF OUT OF THE "LITTLE BRAIN"

Jemal Yesuf

Bright-field microcopy

The cerebellum is a structurally fascinating part of the brain located at the base of the head, above the spine. Fittingly named the "little-brain" in Latin, the cerebellum is packed with roughly 4 times as many neurons as the rest of the brain, while accounting for only 10% of its total volume. On its surface, the cerebellum appears as a ball formed of evenly spaced and tightly packed parallel ridges (folds) and grooves. These folds are known as folia because of their leaf-like appearance. Each folium is composed of the outer “grey matter”, populated by neurons, and inner “white matter”, containing thread-like appendages known as axons through which neurons transmit their electrical signals. If we cut deep into the cerebellum, we can see the branchy cerebellar white matter with its tree-like appearance, referred to as the “arbor vitae” (Latin for “tree of life”). Through the arbor vitae, the cerebellum shares information within itself and the rest of the nervous system. This photo shows a human cerebellar folium stained for a group of proteins called neurofilaments that serve as building blocks of neuronal cells. Understanding cerebellar architecture is becoming increasingly crucial as the cerebellum grows in importance in the study of different brain disorders such as autism and degenerative diseases.

To learn more about this image from the scientist who created it, watch this video.

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