Last updated: Sun, Jun 18, 2017
The organization of the spinal cord has had much attention from researchers, and has been a difficult puzzle to solve. One of the early clues came when a researcher noticed that the horns of the spinal gray matter form layers. These layers are formally called the laminae of Rexed after their discoverer. Some of the layers are visible to the naked eye. Most are apparent only under an optical microscope with the aid of tissue staining and other histological and pharmacological techniques. Figure 1: The laminae of Rexed shows nine laminae in the left horn.
The different layers have specialized functions.