Ultrastructural analysis of dendritic spine necks reveals a continuum of spine morphologies.

ABSTRACT: Dendritic spines are membranous protrusions that receive essentially all excitatory inputs in most mammalian neurons. Spines, with a bulbous head connected to the dendrite by a thin neck, have a variety of morphologies that likely impact their functional properties. Nevertheless, the question of whether spines belong to distinct morphological subtypes is still open. Addressing this quantitatively requires clear identification and measurements of spine necks. Recent advances in electron microscopy enable large-scale systematic reconstructions of spines with nanometer precision in 3D. Analyzing ultrastructural reconstructions from mouse neocortical neurons with computer vision algorithms, we demonstrate that the vast majority of spine structures can be rigorously separated into heads and nec

SUBMITTER: Ofer N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8852350 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature