ROSTROCAUDAL CHANGES IN NEURONAL CELL-SIZE IN HUMAN LATERAL VESTIBULAR NUCLEUS

A cytoarchitectonic and morphometric study of the human lateral vestib ular nucleus (LVN) is presented. In sagittal sections, the LVN appears as a triangular cell group rostrally located near the motor trigemina l nucleus and caudally near the vestibular root. The estimated volume is 13.49 mm3 with a neuronal population of 25,046 cells and 1855 neuro ns/mm3 in density. The average neuronal cross-sectional area changes f rom a minimum caudally (380.02 +/- 7.23 mum2) to a maximum rostrally ( 825.16 +/- 25.10 mum2). Four types of neurons can be observed: small ( < 200 mum2), medium (200-500 mum2), large (500-100 mum2) and giant or Deiters's cells (> 1000 mum2). The small and medium cells constitute 6 2%, large cells 26% and the giant cells only 12% of the neuronal popul ation.