Information Processing in Dendritic Spines
- Creators
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Koch, C.
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Poggio, T.
Abstract
Dendritic spines are small twigs on the dendrites of a very large class of neurons in the central nervous system. There are between 10³ and 10⁵ spines per neuron, each one including at least one synapse, i.e. a connection with other neurons. Thus, spines are usually associated with an important feature of neurons - their high degree of connectivity - one of the most obvious differences between present computers and brains. We have analysed the electrical properties of a cortical (spiny) pyramidal cell on the basis of passive cable theory, from measurements made on histological material, using the solution of the cable equation for an arbitrary branched dendritic tree. As postulated by Rall, we found that the somatic potential induced by firing synapse on a spine is a very sensitive function of the dimension of the spine. This observation leads to several hypotheses concerning the electrical functions of spines, especially with respect to their role in memory.
Additional Information
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) This report describes research done at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Max-Planck-Insitut für biologische Kybernetik, Tübingen, Federal Republic of Germany. A. Schüz, F.H.C. Crick, V. Braitenberg and V. Torre aroused our interest in the properties of spines. We are also very much indebted to V. Braitenberg who kindly provided the histological material on which our analysis is based. T. Wiegand helped us with the figures. C.K. was supported by a fellowship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes and is presently supported by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung. This work as supported in paer by the National Science Foundation Grant MCS-79-23110. Travel for collaboration purposes was supported by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Grant 237.81.Attached Files
Accepted Version - AIM-712.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 120905
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20230417-164010993
- Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes
- Fritz Thyssen Stiftung
- NSF
- MCS 79-23110
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
- 237.81
- Created
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2023-04-18Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-04-18Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Koch Laboratory (KLAB)
- Series Name
- A. I. Memo
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 712