The cell is named after its characteristic triangular-shaped soma. Morphological measures and imaging applications are important for further understanding the developmental process.ДЄ human neocortical pyramidal cell that has been stained using Golgi's method. These interactions affect the neural shape and synaptogenesis. Developing cells additionally impose geometrical and physical constraints upon each other. The neuromorphology of nervous tissue is dependent upon genes and other factors, such as electric fields, ionic waves, and gravity. The development of the morphological features of neurons is governed by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The axonal tree morphology is instrumental in activity modulation and information coding. However, there is also a growing evidence for volume transmission, a process that involves electrochemical interactions from the whole cell membrane.

The shape of a neuron often directs the neuron's function by establishing its synaptic partnerships. The geometry of neurons often depends on the cell type and the history of received stimuli that is processed through the synapses. They assert the structure of the neuron is able to determine its function by dictating synapse formation. have recently established a connection between the genetic factors that underlie a specific neuronal structure and how these two factors then pertain to the neuron's function by examining the optic nerves in Drosophila melanogaster. Orientation sensitivity and dendritic branching patterns are a few other common characteristics of neurons that researchers have noted as having an effect on neuron function. For instance, the accordance between the morphology and the functional classes of cat retinal ganglion cells has been studied to show the relationship between neuron shape and function. Research has supported a relationship between the morphological and functional properties of neurons. Since then, myriad techniques have been developed and applied to the field of neuromorphology. In 1983 Thoroya Abdel-Maguid and David Bowsher expanded upon the golgi method and combined it with an impregnation technique which allowed them to visualize the dendrites of neurons and classify them based on their dendritic patterns. Further morphology research continued to develop, including dendritic morphology. This Golgi investigation then promoted new research in neuronal spacing by Ramon y Cajal in 1911. At the end of the 19th century, new techniques, such as Golgi's method, were developed that enabled researchers to view the whole neuron. It was not until the first successful microdissection of a whole nerve cell by Otto Deiters in 1865 that the separate dendrites and axon could be distinguished.

It was originally thought to be an independent globular corpuscle suspended along nerve fibers that looped and coiled.

It took nearly a century after the acceptance of the cell as the basic unit of life before researchers could agree upon the shape of a neuron. Progress in defining the morphology of nerve cells has been slow in its development.

Digital stereology in neuropathology