Calyx of Held Calyx of Held The Calyx of Held is a particularly large synapse in the mammalian auditory central nervous system, so named by Hans Held in his 1893 article "Die centrale Gehörleitung" because of its resemblance to the calyx of a flower. Globular bushy cells in the anteroventral cochlear nucleus (AVCN) send axons to the contralateral medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB), where they synapse via these calyces on MNTB principal cells. These principal cells then project to the ipsilateral lateral superior olive (LSO), where they inhibit postsynaptic neurons and provide a basis for interaural level detection (ILD), required for
Calyx of Held principal neuron with a distinct morphology: branching of the calyx allows the creation of second- and third-order networks. Each branch establishes a connection with the principal neuron, establishing a large number of active zones. This is unusual for synaptic terminals in the brain, as most create a single active zone. Each calyx contains anywhere from 300 to 700 active zones, and in each of the active zones there are about 100 glutamate-containing vesicles with about 3 docked vesicles at a time. These vesicles are large, consistent with the findings regarding quantal size in other adult synapses. Dense-core vesicles, usually containing