Dendritic integration in pyramidal neurons during network activity and disease

Abstract

Neurons have intricate dendritic morphologies which come in an array of shapes and sizes. Not only do they give neurons their unique appearance, but dendrites also endow neurons with the ability to receive and transform synaptic inputs. We now have a wealth of information about the functioning of dendrites which suggests that the integration of synaptic inputs is highly dependent on both dendritic properties and neuronal input patterns. It has been shown that dendrites can perform non-linear processing, actively transforming synaptic input into Na+ spikes, Ca2+ plateau spikes and NMDA spikes. These membrane non-linearities can have a large impact on the neuronal output and have been shown to..