And fourth, to weigh the color of each skeleton node in a 3d view, providing a characteristic signature of the arbor that enables subjective evaluation of its identity.”Įxplore their methods for more information. Third, to measure the cable_length of the main dendritic shafts using centripetal SFC, which applies only to insect neurons with at least one output syn- apse in their dendritic arbor. Second, to quantitatively estimate the cable distance between the axon terminals and dendritic arbor by measuring the amount of cable with the maximum centrifugal SFC value. First, to split an arbor into axon and dendrite at the maximum centrifugal SFC, which is a preliminary step for computing the segregation index, for expressing all kinds of connectivity edges (e.g. axo-axonic, dendro-dendritic) in the wiring diagram, or for rendering the arbor in 3d with differently colored regions. We can split neurons algorithmically by calculating a neuron’s ‘flow centrality’ (Schneider-Mizell et al., 2016)).įrom (Schneider-Mizell et al., 2016)): > “We use flow centrality for four purposes. The biophysical impact of axo-axonic connections is unclear – they can have non-intuitive effects depending on the timing of action potentials in connected partners (Burrows and Laurent, 1993 Burrows and Matheson, 1994 Cuntz et al., 2007 Haag and Borst, 2004). See our recent data (Bates & Schlegel et al., 2020)) for three broad classes of olfactory neuron: Interestingly, the ‘start’ of a dendrite is almost always closer to the neuron’s cell body than the start of its axon. The density of inputs to the dendrite, are higher than in the axon (Bates & Schlegel et al., 2020)). The density of outputs in the axon is higher than in the dendrite. However, all fly neurons examined can be split into an axon-like and a dendrite-like compartment (Schneider-Mizell et al., 2016)).

Axons may connect with axons, even dendrites may input and axon. Dendrites can have outputs, and axons can have inputs. It may also be more ‘amacrine-like’ and lack this division, though this is less common. Dendrites tend to be more spindly and axons bulkier, with boutons packed with presynapses, ready to release neurotransmitter.īut axons and dendrites are not a totally clear division for most neurons. Neurons can be split into a principle input zone, a dendrite, and a principle output zone, an axon.

Axon dendrite