title: Dendritic-branching angles of pyramidal neurons of the human cerebral cortex.
abstract: In this article, we analyze branching angles of the basal dendrites of pyramidal neurons of layers III and V of the human temporal cortex. For this, we use a novel probability directional statistical distribution called truncated von Mises distribution that is able to describe more accurately the dendritic-branching angles than the previous proposals. Then, we perform comparative studies using this statistical method to determine similarities and/or differences between branches and branching angles that belong to different cortical layers and regions. Using this methodology, we found that common design principles exist and govern the patterns found in the different branches that compose the basal dendrites of human pyramidal cells of the temporal cortex. However, particular differences were found between supra and infragranular cells. Furthermore, we compared the branching angles of human layer III pyramidal neurons with data obtained in the previous studies in layer III of both the rat somatosensory cortex and of several cortical areas of the mouse. Finally, we study the branching angle differences between the humans that compose our data.
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain. pablo.fernandezgonz@fi.upm.es.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fernandez-Gonzalez
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Benavides-Piccione
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Leguey
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Concha
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bielza
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Larrañaga
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: DeFelipe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003712:Dendrites; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017966:Pyramidal Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000166:cytology*
keywords: Branching angle distribution; Cortical layers; Dendrite structure; Directional statistics; Neuronal data analysis; Temporal cortex