What is dendritic spine?

Dendritic spines are small protrusions from the dendrite membrane, where contact with neighboring axons is formed in order to receive synaptic input.

What forms the dendritic spine?

Anatomical terms of microanatomy A dendritic spine (or spine) is a small membranous protrusion from a neuron’s dendrite that typically receives input from a single axon at the synapse. Dendritic spines serve as a storage site for synaptic strength and help transmit electrical signals to the neuron’s cell body.

What is dendritic spine morphogenesis?

Dendritic spines are small protrusions off the dendrite that receive excitatory synaptic input. In many cases, spine morphogenesis, plasticity, and maintenance also depend on synaptic activity, as shown by recent studies demonstrating changes in spine dynamics and maintenance with altered sensory experience.

What is the dendritic?

Dendrites are appendages that are designed to receive communications from other cells. They resemble a tree-like structure, forming projections that become stimulated by other neurons and conduct the electrochemical charge to the cell body (or, more rarely, directly to the axons).

What are the four classes of dendritic spines?

During structural analysis dendritic spines are traditionally grouped into four fixed classes according to their morphological features reflecting head and neck properties: mushroom, thin, stubby, and filopodia ( Figure 1 ). Mushroom spines have a large head and a small neck, separating them from a dendrite.

How does the shape of a dendritic spine change?

Dendritic spines are tiny protrusions from dendrites, which form functional contacts with neighboring axons of other neurons ( Smith et al., 2014 ). Dendritic spines are very plastic and their size and shape are constantly changing in response to neuronal activity.

How are mushroom spines different from dendritic spines?

Mushroom spines have a large head and a small neck, separating them from a dendrite. They form strong synaptic connections, have the longest lifetime, and therefore are thought to be sites of long-term memory storage ( Hayashi and Majewska, 2005; Bourne and Harris, 2007 ).

Where is the synapse located in the dendritic spine?

A synapse is a zone of specialized contact between two neurons, serving to transmit information from cell to cell. Most synapses are formed between the axonal bouton and the dendritic spine, which is a specialized protrusion from the dendritic membrane.