Figure 4.4

Spines on a dendrite

Voltage response to a single synaptic EPSP at a spine on a dendrite. There are three spines 100 μm apart on a 1000 μm long dendrite of 2 μm diameter. EPSP occurs at spine 1. Black lines show the voltage at each spine head. Blue lines are the voltage response in the dendrite at the base of each spine. Dendrite modelled with 1006 compartments (1000 for main dendrite plus 2 for each spine); passive membrane throughout with Rm = 28 kΩ cm2, Ra = 150 Ω cm, Cm = 1 μF cm−2; spine head: diameter 0.5 μm, length 0.5 μm; spine neck: diameter 0.2 μm, length 0.5 μm. For a similar circuit see Woolf et al. (1991).

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