title: Dendritic branching angles of pyramidal cells across layers of the juvenile rat somatosensory cortex.
abstract: The characterization of the structural design of cortical microcircuits is essential for understanding how they contribute to function in both health and disease. Since pyramidal neurons represent the most abundant neuronal type and their dendritic spines constitute the major postsynaptic elements of cortical excitatory synapses, our understanding of the synaptic organization of the neocortex largely depends on the available knowledge regarding the structure of pyramidal cells. Previous studies have identified several apparently common rules in dendritic geometry. We study the dendritic branching angles of pyramidal cells across layers to further shed light on the principles that determine the geometric shapes of these cells. We find that the dendritic branching angles of pyramidal cells from layers II-VI of the juvenile rat somatosensory cortex suggest common design principles, despite the particular morphological and functional features that are characteristic of pyramidal cells in each cortical layer. J. Comp. Neurol. 524:2567-2576, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors: Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Informáticos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors: Ignacio
authors: I
authors: Leguey
authors: Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Informáticos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors: Concha
authors: C
authors: Bielza
authors: Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Informáticos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors: Pedro
authors: P
authors: Larrañaga
authors: Laboratorio Cajal de Circuitos Corticales, Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors: Asta
authors: A
authors: Kastanauskaite
authors: Laboratorio Cajal de Circuitos Corticales, Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.|Departamento de Anatomía y Anatomía Patológica Comparada, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors: Concepción
authors: C
authors: Rojo
authors: Laboratorio Cajal de Circuitos Corticales, Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.|Instituto Cajal, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain.
authors: Ruth
authors: R
authors: Benavides-Piccione
authors: Laboratorio Cajal de Circuitos Corticales, Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.|Instituto Cajal, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain.
authors: Javier
authors: J
authors: DeFelipe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D003712:Dendrites / Q000502:physiology*; D049229:Dendritic Spines / Q000502:physiology; D017966:Pyramidal Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000166:cytology* / Q000254:growth & development*
keywords: Jones-Pewsey and von Mises directional statistics; RGD_5508396; branching dendritic angles; cortical layers; neuronal geometrical design; nif-0000-10294; nif-0000-10474