The Mossy Fiber Glomerulus

Abstract

The cerebellar protoplasmic islands and the cerebellar glomeruli were studied at the light microscope level by Denissenko (1877), Ramón y Cajal (1890b, 1926), Retzius (1892a, 1892b), Lugaro (1894), Held (1897), Bielschowsky and Wolff (1904), Berliner (1905), Estable (1923), Cragie (1926), Jakob (1928), Pensa (1931), Boecke (1942), and Fox and Bertram (1954). Later, Brodal and Drablos (1963) distinguished two types of mossy fibers. Ramón y Cajal (1890b), using Golgi preparations, initially described the articulation between the mossy fibers and the granule cell dendrites at the level of the mossy glomeruli and also the participation of Golgi cell axonal ramifications. His earlier observations, later confirmed by the above-mentioned authors, led him to postulate the concept of a synapse by gearing. The views of Ramón y Cajal, as summarized in the Neuronal Doctrine (Ramón y Cajal, 1954), contrasted with the opinion of those supporting the reticularist theory, which conceived the continuity of nerve cell processes forming a diffuse neuronal network (Golgi, 1874; Pensa, 1931).