synaptic inputs to the dendritic spines tagged posts

Reconstruction of a single cell with all imaged orientation-tuned synapses overlaid onto the orientation preference map; the cell is indicated by a triangle and its synapses are indicated by circles — both are colored by their preferred orientation. Credit: Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience

Study points to an active role for dendrites in cortical processing. The cerebral cortex is the largest and most complex area of the brain, with 20 billion neurons and 60 trillion synapses-a neuronal network whose proper function is critical for sensory perception, motor control, and cognition. The part of the cerebral cortex devoted to vision has played a key role in elucidating fundamental principles that are used by cortical circuits to encode information.

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