Dendrite bundles, central programs and the olfactory bulb.
The long secondary dendrites of mitral cells in the olfactory bulb are well developed in the mammalian neonate and show a considerable degree of interweaving and coiling characteristic of dendrite bundles. In a number of other areas throughout the central nervous system, we have made a provisional correlation between the appearance of these bundles and the development of specific items of output performance characteristic of the aras involved. On this basis we have suggested that the dendrite bundles may serve as a repository for the central program shaping the response. This hypothesis is explored further in the case of the olfactory bulb. Mechanisms are suggested whereby rudimentary appetitive programs already encoded along facing dendrite membrane pairs within the specialized intrafascicular milieu, may trigger and control nipple search and suckling in the still blind and only primitively mobile neonate.
D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000254:growth & development; D003712:Dendrites / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009830:Olfactory Bulb / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D051381:Rats