A scaling law derived from optimal dendritic wiring.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 22715290.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1073/pnas.1200430109 and PMC identifier 3390826.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
The wide diversity of dendritic trees is one of the most striking features of neural circuits. Here we develop a general quantitative theory relating the total length of dendritic wiring to the number of branch points and synapses. We show that optimal wiring predicts a 2/3 power law between these measures. We demonstrate that the theory is consistent with data from a wide variety of neurons across many different species and helps define the computational compartments in dendritic trees. Our results imply fundamentally distinct design principles for dendritic arbors compared with vascular, bronchial, and botanical trees.
Medical subject headings
- Dendrites
- Models, Neurological
- Neural Pathways
- Neurons
- Synapses