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NL888 Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Does "elaborations" mean "details" here?

Context:

Basket cells are inhibitory GABAergic interneurons found in several brain regions: the molecular layer of the cerebellum, the hippocampus, and the cortex.In the cerebellum, they synapse on the cell bodies of Purkinje cells, and are multipolar and stellate, with freely branching dendrites, which are dilated and knotty.
Hippocampus
Hippocampal basket cells target somata and proximal dendrites of pyramidal neurons. Cortical[1] and hippocampal basket cells are parvalbumin-expressing and fast-spiking.

Cortex
In the cortex, basket cells have sparsely branched axons giving off small pericellular, basket-shaped elaborations at several intervals along their length. There are three types of basket cells in the cortex, the small, large and nest type: The axon of a small basket cell arborizes in the vicinity of that same cell's dendritic range. In contrast, large basket cells innervate somata in different cortical columns. The nest basket cells are an intermediate form of the small and large cells, their axons are confined mainly to the same cortical layer as their somata.
  

Top answer

Hi I think the word is being used in a definite scientific context A nerve cell can grow like a tree, with branches shooting out from it. These "shoots" are called elaborations So an elaboration is something that naturally grows out of the cell, like the branches of a tree Dave

  • Hi I think the word is being used in a definite scientific context A nerve cell can grow like a tree, with branches shooting out from it.
  • These "shoots" are called elaborations So an elaboration is something that naturally grows out of the cell, like the branches of a tree Dave
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3 Answers
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Hi

I think the word is being used in a definite scientific context

A nerve cell can grow like a tree, with branches shooting out from it. These "shoots" are called elaborations

So an elaboration is something that naturally grows out of the cell, like the branches of a tree

Dave
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Excellent!
Thank you.

In the context, what does "nest" mean in "The nest basket cells"?
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Hi

I'm not absolutely sure, but I think once you have the cell developing offshoots then one of the things that can happen is that they curl around into the shape of a basket or nest

These cells can then perform a specific function in the brain. (They are receptors?) The general name for this shape is "basket cell"; and a particular form of this is the "nest basket cell"

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