<p>In pyramidal neurons, are there any  differences (morphological or otherwise) between the basal synapses and proximal synapses on the apical tuft ? As far as I know, they both have dendritic spines, and the same chemical signalling mechanisms. What is different ? I believe action potentials communicated along basal synapses cannot depolarize the post-synaptic neuron, but some work[1] suggests it can reduce the activation threshold. Is there any actual evidence of this ? that basal synapses can reduce threshold but not activate.</p>
<p>[1] Hawkins, J., &amp; Ahmad, S. (2016). Why neurons have thousands of synapses, a theory of sequence memory in neocortex. Frontiers in neural circuits, 23.</p>

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2022-04-23T22:54:00.540Z
The two papers are cited as evidence in [1] for the (only) sub-threshold depolarization by basal dendrites. These are:
[2] Spatiotemporally Graded NMDA Spike/Plateau Potentials in Basal Dendrites of Neocortical Pyramidal Neurons
Guy Major, Alon Polsky, Winfried Denk, Jackie Schiller, and David W. Tank
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jn.00011.2008
Ram
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2022-04-23T22:55:14.790Z
and
[3] Antic, S. D., Zhou, W. L., Moore, A. R., Short, S. M., and Ikonomu,K. D. (2010). The decade of the dendritic NMDA spike.J. Neurosci. Res.88, 2991–3001. doi: 10.1002/jnr.22444
Ram
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-04-23T22:57:07.560Z
These papers are outside of my area and quite hard to parse. I couldn't easily find a direct statement to support this threshold-tuning phenomena of basal dendrites. If I missed the critical line/para. Please let me know.
Ram
<neuroscience><neurophysiology><brain>
In pyramidal neurons, are there any differences (morphological or otherwise) between the basal synapses and proximal synapses on the apical tuft?
Ram
# In pyramidal neurons, are there any differences (morphological or otherwise) between the basal synapses and proximal synapses on the apical tuft?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-04-20)

In pyramidal neurons, are there any differences (morphological or otherwise) between the basal synapses and proximal synapses on the apical tuft ? As far as I know, they both have dendritic spines, and the same chemical signalling mechanisms. What is different ? I believe action potentials communicated along basal synapses cannot depolarize the post-synaptic neuron, but some work[1] suggests it can reduce the activation threshold. Is there any actual evidence of this ? that basal synapses can reduce threshold but not activate.

[1] Hawkins, J., & Ahmad, S. (2016). Why neurons have thousands of synapses, a theory of sequence memory in neocortex. Frontiers in neural circuits, 23.

**Tags:** neuroscience, neurophysiology, brain

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: The two papers are cited as evidence in [1] for the (only) sub-threshold depolarization by basal dendrites. These are: [2] Spatiotemporally Graded NMDA Spike/Plateau Potentials in Basal Dendrites of Neocortical Pyramidal Neurons Guy Major, Alon Polsky, Winfried Denk, Jackie Schiller, and David W. Tank https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jn.00011.2008  
> **username_0**: and [3] Antic, S. D., Zhou, W. L., Moore, A. R., Short, S. M., and Ikonomu,K. D. (2010). The decade of the dendritic NMDA spike.J. Neurosci. Res.88, 2991–3001. doi: 10.1002/jnr.22444  
> **username_0**: These papers are outside of my area and quite hard to parse. I couldn't easily find a direct statement to support this threshold-tuning phenomena of basal dendrites. If I missed the critical line/para. Please let me know.  

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## 0 answers

