Neuroepithelial cells are the "stem cells" of the nervous system, deriving from actual stem cells in several different stages of neural development. These neural stem cells then differentiate further into multiple types of cells, like neurons, astrocytes and other glial cells. They appear during embryonic development of the neural tube as well as in adult neurogenesis in specific areas of the central nervous system. They are also associated with several neurodegenerative diseases. These cells have often been called neuroblasts in an effort to delineate them as precursors to neurons and glial cells.
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“It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)