The spine neck filters membrane potentials
Open accessAbstract
Dendritic spines receive most synaptic inputs in the forebrain. Their morphology, with a spine head isolated from the dendrite by a slender neck, indicates a potential role in isolating inputs. Indeed, biochemical compartmentalization occurs at spine heads because of the diffusional bottleneck created by the spine neck. Here we investigate whether the spine neck also isolates inputs electrically. Using two-photon uncaging of glutamate on spine heads from mouse layer-5 neocortical pyramidal cells, we find that the amplitude of uncaging potentials at the soma is inversely proportional to neck length. This effect is strong and independent of the position of the spine in the dendritic tree and size of the spine head. Moreover, spines with long necks are electrically silent at the soma, although their heads are activated by the uncaging event, as determined with calcium imaging. Finally, second harmonic measurements of membrane potential reveal an attenuation of somatic voltages into the spine head, an attenuation directly proportional to neck length. We conclude that the spine neck plays an electrical role in the transmission of membrane potentials, isolating synapses electrically.
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The length of the spine neck is proportional to the extent of biochemical and electrical isolation of the spine from its parent dendrite.
“Moreover, the length of the spine neck is proportional to the extent of biochemical and electrical isolation of the spine from its parent dendrite (Majewska et al., 2000a, b; Araya et al., 2006).”
From The influence of phospho-tau on dendritic spines of cortical pyramidal neurons in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (2013) · cites this paper as Araya et al., 2006
The opening section (page unavailable) says biochemical compartmentalization occurs at spine heads because the neck creates a diffusional bottleneck. It also reports that electrical attenuation increases with neck length. It does not establish that the extent of biochemical isolation is proportional to neck length. (LLM, conf=0.87)
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- Authors
- Araya, R., Jiang, J., Eisenthal, K. B., & Yuste, R.
- Affiliations
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2006-11-21
- Volume
- 103
- Issue
- 47
- Pages
- 17961-17966
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC1693855
- OpenAlex
- W2120809634
- Cited by
- 258
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 5.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Columbia Academic Commons (Columbia University)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Eye Institute
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Ion channel regulation and function
- Keywords
- dendritic spines, glutamate uncaging, pyramidal neurons, dendritic compartmentalization, second harmonic generation microscopy, calcium imaging, synaptic transmission
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Calcium, Cerebral Cortex, Electrophysiology, Fluorescent Dyes, Membrane Potentials, Microscopy, Fluorescence, Synaptic Transmission, Photons, Pyramidal Cells, Glutamic Acid, Dendritic Spines, Mice
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