 Recent research suggests that Martinotti cells are associated with a cortical dampening mechanism.When the pyramidal neuron, which is the most common type of neuron in the cortex, starts getting overexcited, Martinotti cells start sending inhibitory signals to the surrounding neurons.Historically, the discovery of Martinotti cells has been mistakenly attributed to Giovanni Martinotti 1888, although it is now accepted that they were actually discovered in 1889 by Carlo Martinotti (1859–1908), a student of Camillo Golgi.