Spines slow dendrite diffusion

Spines slow dendrite diffusion

L ittle bulbous neuronal protrusions known as spines slow diffusion along dendrites, say Fidel Santamaria, George Augustine (Duke University, Durham, NC), and colleagues. Based on their new data, they offer a new hypothesis for how active synapses are tagged during long-term potentiation (LTP). Spines are thought to act locally by preventing the chemical messengers made at a synapse from leakin...

Spines slow down dendritic chloride diffusion and affect short-term ionic plasticity of GABAergic inhibition

Cl(-) plays a crucial role in neuronal function and synaptic inhibition. However, the impact of neuronal morphology on the diffusion and redistribution of intracellular Cl(-) is not well understood. The role of spines in Cl(-) diffusion along dendritic trees has not been addressed so far. Because measuring fast and spatially restricted Cl(-) changes within dendrites is not yet technically possi...

Diffusion laws in dendritic spines

Dendritic spines are small protrusions on a neuronal dendrite that are the main locus of excitatory synaptic connections. Although their geometry is variable over time and along the dendrite, they typically consist of a relatively large head connected to the dendritic shaft by a narrow cylindrical neck. The surface of the head is connected smoothly by a funnel or non-smoothly to the narrow neck...

A novel computational approach for automatic dendrite spines detection in two-photon laser scan microscopy.

BACKGROUND Recent research has shown that there is a strong correlation between the functional properties of a neuron and its morphologic structure. Current morphologic analyses typically involve a significant component of computer-assisted manual labor, which is very time-consuming and is susceptible to operator bias. The existing semi-automatic approaches largely reduce user efforts. However,...

Diffusion Approximation for Slow Motion