Axon Hillock

Axon hillock "Hillock" redirects here. A hillock is also a small hill.

The Axon Hillock is the anatomical part of a neuron that connects the cell body (the soma) to the axon. It is attributed as the place where Inhibitory Postsynaptic Potentials (IPSPs) and Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials (EPSPs) from numerous synaptic inputs on the dendrites or cell body summate.

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It is electrophysiologically equivalent to the 'initial segment where the summated membrane potential reaches the triggering threshold, an action potential propagates through the rest of the axon (and "backwards" towards the dendrites as seen in Neural backpropagation). The triggering is due to positive feedback between highly crowded voltage gated sodium channels, which are present at the critical density at the axon hillock (and nodes of ranvier) but not in the soma.

Cell biologically it is the neuronal equivalent of tight junction as it acts as a barrier for lateral diffusion of transmembrane proteins (and GPI anchored proteins like thy1 across it.)

v d eHistology: nervous tissue
Neurons (gray matter)soma, axon (axon hillock, axoplasm, axolemma, neurofibril/neurofilament), dendrite (Nissl body, dendritic spine, apical dendrite, basal dendrite)types (bipolar, pseudounipolar, multipolar, pyramidal, Purkinje, granule)
Afferent nerve/Sensory nerve/Sensory neuronGSA, GVA, SSA, SVA, fibers (Ia, Ib or Golgi, II or Aβ, III or Aδ or fast pain, IV or C or slow pain)
Efferent nerve/Motor nerve/Motor neuronGSE, GVE, SVE, Upper motor neuron, Lower motor neuron (α motorneuron, γ motorneuron)
Synapsesneuropil, synaptic vesicle, neuromuscular junction, electrical synapse - Interneuron (Renshaw)
Sensory receptorsFree nerve ending, Meissner's corpuscle, Merkel nerve ending, Muscle spindle, Pacinian corpuscle, Ruffini ending, Olfactory receptor neuron, Photoreceptor cell, Hair cell, Taste bud
Glial cellsastrocyte, oligodendrocyte, ependymal cells, microglia, radial glia
Myelination (white matter)Schwann cell, oligodendrocyte, nodes of Ranvier, internode, Schmidt-Lanterman incisures, neurolemma
Related connective tissuesepineurium, perineurium, endoneurium, nerve fascicle, meninges

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