Neuropil

The neuropil or neuropil (from Greek neural, neuron = " string ", " string ", " clamping force ", " nerve" and pilêma = " felt ") is a network of nerves, which is mainly in the central nervous system (CNS ) between the cell bodies located.

It consists mainly of the nichtmyelinisierten dendrites of neighboring cells and Gliazellfortsätzen and acts microscopically amorphous or tomentose. It is the link between cells that are present in the CNS particularly in high numbers and have a very high degree of linkage. Among vertebrates, the neuropil forms the largest part of the gray matter, in invertebrates the central part of the ganglion.

History

The term " neuropil " was introduced by the Hungarian histologist Stephan Apáthy 1897 as part of the nerve network hypothesis, the assumption that the nervous system of a continuous network of interconnected fibers. This was later superseded by the neuron theory, which is based on that the nervous system consists of individual, autonomous and physically separate but interacting cells.