neural
Meaning of neural: The all-purpose adjective for anything to do with nerves, and one that quietly differs from neuronal in what it takes in.
Definition of neural
Neural means relating to nerves or to the nervous system as a whole, which includes the brain, the spinal cord, the nerves running through the body and the supporting cells around them. It appears as a modifier rather than on its own, in phrases such as neural tissue, neural pathway and neural tube, and in embryology it names the early structures the nervous system grows from.
How neural is built
- neur/o Combining form · Greek nerve, nervous system
- -ac, -al, -ar, -ary, -eal, -ic Suffix · Greek and Latin pertaining to, relating to
A medical term is read from its ending backwards: the suffix first, then the prefix, then the root. See all 223 word parts.
How does it differ from neuronal?
Neural is the broader word. It covers the whole nervous system, including the glial cells that outnumber nerve cells and the sheaths and connective tissue that hold a nerve together. Neuronal is narrower and refers to nerve cells themselves. A tumor described as neural in origin might have arisen from any of those components, while one described as neuronal is made of nerve cells. In ordinary speech the two are used interchangeably, and in a pathology report they are not.
What does it mean in the developing embryo?
| Structure | What becomes of it |
|---|---|
| Neural plate | A thickened strip of the embryo's surface layer |
| Neural tube | Folds up from the plate and forms the brain and spinal cord |
| Neural crest | Cells that migrate away to form nerves, pigment cells and much else |
Failure of the tube to close leaves a defect in the spine or the skull, and this is the origin of spina bifida. The crest is remarkable for how far its cells travel and how varied their destinations are, which is why disorders arising from it affect tissues that look entirely unrelated, from skin pigment to the adrenal glands.
Where else does the word appear?
It has spread well beyond anatomy. A neural pathway is a chain of connections carrying one kind of signal. Neural tone describes the background activity the autonomic nervous system maintains in blood vessels and organs. Outside medicine, a neural network in computing is a mathematical model that borrowed the name from the arrangement of connected cells and contains no nerve tissue whatsoever. Reports also use neural as shorthand for nerve involvement, as when a tumor is described as showing neural invasion, meaning it has grown along or around a nerve.
Also known as
Used in a sentence
The report noted neural invasion at the deep margin.
Good to know
Neural refers to the nervous system broadly, including glial and supporting tissue, whereas neuronal refers specifically to nerve cells, a distinction that matters when a lesion is classified by its cell of origin.
Word origin
Where “neural” comes from
Neural comes from the Greek neuron, which first meant a sinew or cord and later came to mean nerve; the Latin nervus carried both senses as well.