Dendritic Discrimination of Temporal Input Sequences in Cortical Neurons

Abstract

Discriminating Dendrites Can dendrites read out spatiotemporal input sequences? Combining two-photon glutamate uncaging and two-photon calcium imaging, electrophysiology, and computational modeling, Branco et al. (p. 1671 , published online 12 August; see the Perspective by Destexhe ) discovered that single dendrites were indeed sensitive to both the direction and velocity of synaptic inputs. This direction- and velocity-sensitivity was measurable with only a few inputs and should thus be engaged frequently during normal brain function.