The DOI matches its Crossref record; 39 of the 40 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Synaptic amplification by dendritic spines enhances input cooperativity
Open accessAbstract
Dendritic spines are the nearly ubiquitous site of excitatory synaptic input onto neurons and as such are critically positioned to influence diverse aspects of neuronal signalling. Decades of theoretical studies have proposed that spines may function as highly effective and modifiable chemical and electrical compartments that regulate synaptic efficacy, integration and plasticity. Experimental studies have confirmed activity-dependent structural dynamics and biochemical compartmentalization by spines. However, there is a longstanding debate over the influence of spines on the electrical aspects of synaptic transmission and dendritic operation. Here we measure the amplitude ratio of spine head to parent dendrite voltage across a range of dendritic compartments and calculate the associated spine neck resistance (R(neck)) for spines at apical trunk dendrites in rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons. We find that R(neck) is large enough (~500 MΩ) to amplify substantially the spine head depolarization associated with a unitary synaptic input by ~1.5- to ~45-fold, depending on parent dendritic impedance. A morphologically realistic compartmental model capable of reproducing the observed spatial profile of the amplitude ratio indicates that spines provide a consistently high-impedance input structure throughout the dendritic arborization. Finally, we demonstrate that the amplification produced by spines encourages electrical interaction among coactive inputs through an R(neck)-dependent increase in spine head voltage-gated conductance activation. We conclude that the electrical properties of spines promote nonlinear dendritic processing and associated forms of plasticity and storage, thus fundamentally enhancing the computational capabilities of neurons.
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“Because of the high spine neck resistance (∼1 GΩ) it is calculated that an unpotentiated EPSP can approximate 25 mV (185, 186).”
From Synaptic memory and CaMKII (2023) · cites this paper as [185]
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“These active properties of dendritic spines are thought to play an important role in the interactions between multiple synaptic inputs in dendritic computation (Araya et al., 2007; Harnett et al., 2012).”
From Barriers in the brain: resolving dendritic spine morphology and compartmentalization (2014) · cites this paper as Harnett et al., 2012
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“Activating VDCCs, which are present in spines, evokes cytosolic spine Ca2+ transients (185–187) and the activation of cytosolic spine CaMKII (188).”
From Synaptic memory and CaMKII (2023) · cites this paper as [185]
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The NEURON Simulation Environment
Hines, M. L., & Carnevale, N. T. (1997) · Neural Computation · doi:10.1162/neco.1997.9.6.1179 · Cited by 2,630
K+ channel regulation of signal propagation in dendrites of hippocampal pyramidal neurons
Hoffman, D. A., Magee, J. C., Colbert, C. M., & Johnston, D. (1997) · Nature · doi:10.1038/43119 · Cited by 1,392
Self-citationLondon, M., & Häusser, M. (2005) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.28.061604.135703 · Cited by 1,149
Dendritic spines as basic functional units of neuronal integration
Yuste, R., & Denk, W. (1995) · Nature · doi:10.1038/375682a0 · Cited by 950
Balancing Structure and Function at Hippocampal Dendritic Spines
Bourne, J. N., & Harris, K. M. (2008) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.31.060407.125646 · Cited by 916
Foundations of Cellular Neurophysiology
Johnston, D., & Wu, S. M.-S. (1994) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 910
Somatic EPSP amplitude is independent of synapse location in hippocampal pyramidal neurons
Magee, J. C., & Cook, E. P. (2000) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/78800 · Cited by 637
Self-citationLocally dynamic synaptic learning rules in pyramidal neuron dendrites
Harvey, C. D., & Svoboda, K. (2007) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature06416 · Cited by 625
Dendritic Ih normalizes temporal summation in hippocampal CA1 neurons
Magee, J. C. (1999) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/9158 · Cited by 617
Self-citationTheory of Physiological Properties of Dendrites
Rall, W. (1962) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1962.tb54120.x · Cited by 609
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Metadata
- Authors
- Harnett, M. T., Makara, J. K., Spruston, N., Kath, W. L., & Magee, J. C.
- Affiliations
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Northwestern University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Magee, Jeffrey C.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2012-10-28
- Volume
- 491
- Issue
- 7425
- Pages
- 599-602
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- PMC
- PMC3504647
- OpenAlex
- W2068904459
- Cited by
- 288
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 26 · 2014: 25 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 10.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Wellcome Trust (090915)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS046064, NS-077601, R01NS077601, NS046064)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- dendritic spines, dendritic integration, CA1 pyramidal neurons, dendritic compartmentalization, synaptic plasticity
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Male, Models, Neurological, Synapses, Electric Impedance, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Rats, Wistar, Pyramidal Cells, Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials, Dendritic Spines, Rats
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