Rostrocaudal changes in neuronal cell size in human lateral vestibular nucleus.

A cytoarchitectonic and morphometric study of the human lateral vestibular nucleus (LVN) is presented. In sagittal sections, the LVN appears as a triangular cell group rostrally located near the motor trigeminal nucleus and caudally near the vestibular root. The estimated volume is 13.49 mm3 with a neuronal population of 25,046 cells and 1855 neurons/mm3 in density. The average neuronal cross-sectional area changes from a minimum caudally (380.02 +/- 7.23 microns 2) to a maximum rostrally (825.16 +/- 25.10 microns 2). Four types of neurons can be observed: small (< 200 microns 2), medium (200-500 microns 2), large (500-100 microns 2) and giant or Deiter's cells (> 1000 microns 2). The small and medium cells constitute 62%, large cells 26% and the giant cells only 12% of the neuronal population.