SCALING BEHAVIOR OF THE DENDRITIC BRANCHES OF THALAMIC NEURONS

Abstract

The morphology of Golgi-impregnated thalamic neurons was investigated quantitatively. In particular, it was sought to test whether the dendritic bifurcations can be described by the scaling law (d0)n=(d1)n+(d2)nwith a single value of the diameter exponent n. Here d0 is the diameter of the parent branch, d1 and d2 are the diameters of the two daughter branches. Neurons from two functionally distinct regions were compared: the somatosensory ventrobasal complex (VB) and its nociceptive ventral periphery (VBvp). It is shown that for the neuronal trees studied in both regions, the scaling law was fulfilled. The diameter exponent n, however, was not a constant. It increased from n=1.76 for the 1st order branches to n=3.92 for the 7th order branches of neurons from both regions. These findings suggest that more than one simple intrinsic rule is involved in the neuronal growth process, and it is assumed that the branching ratio d0/d1 is not required to be encoded genetically. Furthermore, the results support the concept of the dendritic trees having a statistically identical topology in neurons of VB and VBvp and thus may be regarded as integrative modules.