Basket cells are inhibitoryGABAergicinterneurons found in the molecular layer of the cerebellum. They synapse on the cell bodies of Purkinje cells, and are multipolar and stellate, with freely branching dendrites. An inhibitor is a type of effector that decreases or prevents a chemical reaction. ... Chemical structure of GABA Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a neurotransmitter in widely divergent species. ... An interneuron is a neuron that communicates only to other neurons. ... Cerebellum (in blue) of the human brain The cerebellum (literally little brain) is a brain region important for a number of motor and cognitive functions, including motor learning, movement planning, motor timing, posture maintenance and equilibrium, and some cognitive/attentive functions. ... The cell body or soma is a structure in a neuron consisting of the main part of the cell and containing the nucleus. ... In biology, a dendrite is a slender, typically branched projection of a nerve cell, or neuron, which conducts the electrical stimulation received from other cells to the body or soma of the cell from which it projects. ...
These cells are some of the largest neurons in the brain, with an intricately elaborate dendritic arbor, characterized by a large number of dendritic spines.
Purkinje cells are found within the Purkinje layer in the cerebellum.
Both basket and stellate cells (found in the cerebellar molecular layer) provide inhibitory (GABAergic) input to the Purkinje cell, with basketcells synapsing on the Purkinje cell body and stellate cells onto the dendrites.