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The Cerebellum Magnified

  MAGNIFIED 4x MAGNIFIED 10x MAGNIFIED 20x
HUMAN 4x Photomicrograph Human Cerebellum 10x Photomicrograph Human Cerebellum N/A
MONKEY 4x Photomicrograph Monkey Cerebellum 10x Photomicrograph Monkey Cerebellum 20x Photomicrograph Monkey Cerebellum
CAT 4x Photomicrograph Cat Cerebellum 10x Photomicrograph Cat Cerebellum N/A
RAT 4x Photomicrograph Rat Cerebellum  10x Photomicrograph Rat Cerebellum  20x Photomicrograph Rat Cerebellum
FROG 4x Photomicrograph Frog Cerebellum 10x Photomicrograph Frog Cerebellum  20x Photomicrograph Frog Cerebellum

What do you notice about these pictures? Do they strike you as particularly similar or different? Perhaps with the exception of the frog cerebellum, you may notice that all of the photomicrographs look quite similar. At the low (4x) and medium (10x) magnifications, we see that the organization of the cerebellum looks very similar across all the animals. In addition, even at the highest (20x) magnification, the neurons are apparently quite similar in both the human, monkey, cat, rat, and frog.

A main difference you may have seen is that there are a few larger cells in the monkey cerebellum under high power which are not as obvious in other animals. These are called Purkinje cells (whose axons constitute the sole output from the cerebral cortex). In general, "higher" mammals tend to have more pronounced, distinct Purkinje cells than "lower" mammals. Do you notice that in these pictures? Click here to learn more about the neuron, or click one of the buttons below to continue magnifying parts of the brain.

 

Click here to magnify the forebrain                       Click here to magnify the hindbrain

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