These neurons are the largest in the central nervous system, sometimes reaching 100 μm in diameter.

[1][2] Betz cells are upper motor neurons that send their axons down to the spinal cord via the corticospinal tract, where in humans they synapse directly with anterior horn cells, which in turn synapse directly with their target muscles.

[3] While Betz cells have one apical dendrite typical of pyramidal neurons, they have more primary dendritic shafts, which can branch out at almost any point from the soma (cell body).

[4] These perisomatic (around the cell body) and basal dendrites project into all cortical layers, but most of their horizontal branches/arbors populate layers V and VI, some reaching down into the white matter.

[7] List of distinct cell types in the adult human body