An axon arising from cerebellar projecting cells in the cochlea, vestibular nuclei, spinal cord, reticular formation, cerebellar nuclei and basilar pontine nuclei. Mossy fibers enter through all three cerebellar peduncles and send collaterals to the deep cerebellar nuclei, then branch in the white matter and terminate in the granule cell layer. Through this branching, a given mossy fiber can innervate several folia. Mossy fibers synapse on granule cells. The synaptic contacts are made at enlargements along the length of the mossy fiber called mossy fiber rosettes. The enlargements of the rosettes give the axons a mossy-looking appearance in Golgi stained preparations.
cerebellar mossy fibre