QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Miller, J. Articles by Jacobs, G. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Miller, J. Articles by Jacobs, G.

Journal of Experimental Biology, Vol 112, Issue 1 129-145, Copyright © 1984 by Company of Biologists

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Relationships between neuronal structure and function

JP Miller and GA Jacobs

The geometry and electrical properties of a neurone determine how synaptic inputs and endogenously generated currents are integrated and transformed into the signals it transmits to other cells. The dependence of neuronal integration upon dendritic geometry has been studied extensively over the last three decades, both by experimentalists and by theoreticians. We review some of the general principles that have emerged from this work, and summarize recent studies that serve to illustrate these principles. The discussion is organized around the analysis of neuronal structure at three different levels. At the 'macroscopic' level, we show how the dendritic branching structure of an identified interneurone in the cricket cercal afferent system determines the directional sensitivity within its receptive field. At the 'microscopic' level, we illustrate the dependence of synaptic efficacy upon dendritic length, and demonstrate a very surprising result: that the extension (or 'growth') of a dendrite out beyond the point of a synaptic contact can increase the efficacy of that synapse. At the 'ultrastructural' level, we show how the structural and electrical properties of dendritic spines might have profound effects upon synaptic integration.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G. A. Jacobs, J. P. Miller, and Z. Aldworth Computational mechanisms of mechanosensory processing in the cricket J. Exp. Biol., June 1, 2008; 211(11): 1819 - 1828. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				H. Cuntz, J. Haag, and A. Borst Neural image processing by dendritic networks PNAS, September 16, 2003; 100(19): 11082 - 11085. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]