Fox G Q, Pappas G D, Purpura D P
Brain Res. 1976 Jan 23;101(3):385-410. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(76)90467-4.
A light and electron microscopic study of the caudal medullary raphe nuclei of neonatal kittens reveals that these nuclei are composed of three size classes of neurons with several possible subclasses. Internuclearly projecting dendritic arborizations in the transverse plane and intranuclear projections in the sagittal plane are common features of large and medium size class neurons of raphe nuclei magnus and obscurus though not for the cells of nucleus raphe pallidus. A positive correlation exists between neuron size and density of axosomatic and axodendritic synapses, which suggests that the large class neurons are the first to receive input in synaptogenesis, which is occurring at this time. A wide variety of synaptic forms and integration is also a characteristic feature within these nuclei, though it is not clear whether this morphological variance represents a phylogenic and/or ontogenic trend or just an expression of the multifunctional nature of this region.
一项对新生小猫延髓尾部中缝核的光镜和电镜研究显示，这些核由三种大小类别的神经元组成，可能还有几个亚类。中缝大核和中缝隐核的大中型神经元的共同特征是，在横平面上有核间投射树突分支，在矢状平面上有核内投射，但中缝苍白核的细胞没有这些特征。神经元大小与轴体突触和轴树突触密度之间存在正相关，这表明大类神经元是此时正在发生的突触发生中最先接受输入的神经元。这些核内还具有各种各样的突触形式和整合，不过尚不清楚这种形态学差异是代表系统发育和/或个体发育趋势，还是仅仅是该区域多功能性质的一种表现。
