Individual differences | Methods | Statistics | Clinical |
Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology
| |The formation of the spinal nerve from the dorsal and ventral
roots. (Gray matter labeled at center right.)| |Micrograph
showing grey matter, with the characteristic neuronal cell
bodies (right of image - dark shade of pink), and white matter
with its characteristic fine meshwork-like appearance (left of
image - lighter shade of pink). HPS stain.| Grey matter (or gray
matter) is a major component of the central nervous system,
consisting of neuronal cell bodies, neuropil (dendrites and
unmyelinated axons), glial cells (astroglia and
oligodendrocytes) and capillaries. Grey matter contains neural
cell bodies, in contrast to white matter, which does not and
mostly contains myelinated axon tracts. The color difference
arises mainly from the whiteness of myelin. In living tissue,
grey matter actually has a grey-brown color, which comes from
capillary blood vessels and neuronal cell bodies.