diversity of dendritic spines

[Ranjita Dutta Roy]

What is the reason that we have different types of dendritic spines in the hippocampus (thin, stubby, mushroom and branched)? Do they have different functions?

[Steffen]

Different shapes of spines show different chemical and electrical resistances. The thinner the neck, the higher the resistance, because there is less space for chemicals and charges to travel. Somewhere, I had a short list of different spine shapes and maybe their specific properties, but I couldn't find it. I hope this helps you already.

[Ranjita Dutta Roy]

Interesting! So, if I'm not mistaken, this should mean that different spines contribute differently to long-term potentiation since the signal which tells the nucleus to produce upregulate LTP genes will travel at different paces. 


P.S. Thank you for all your replies Steffen! They were very helpful for a fresh Neuroscience student like me.


 

[Steffen]

It's not THAT easy, but yes. Different spine shapes contribute differently to LTP, LTD and what else has to do with traveling chemicals/charges at synapses.

[neons]

Function is not the same.