{"id":7676,"date":"2019-05-22T15:59:26","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T15:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/dendrite\/"},"modified":"2019-05-22T15:59:26","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T15:59:26","slug":"dendrite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/dendrite\/","title":{"rendered":"Dendrite"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Derived from the Greek word dendron meaning &#8216;tree&#8217;, in biology, it is a branch-like nerve cell process collecting incoming or afferent information in the form of electrical signals. &nbsp;It receives synapses from the axon terminals of neurons, but unlike a neuron it is not myelinated. &nbsp;Pyramidal neurons have a tall-tree-like apical dendrite plus some root-like basal dendrites. &nbsp;At least in cerebral cortex, dendrites are the receiving branches of the neuron and the axon is the sending branch. &nbsp;Elsewhere, some dendrites can also act like axon terminals, releasing neurotransmitters in response to impulses and local voltage changes. &nbsp;Some dendrites have spines (small fibers and bumps) on their surface, which serve to greatly increase the surface area of a neuron (see figure below). &nbsp;One important feature of dendrites is that the shape of their tree-like structure differs between varieties of neurons, which allows neurons to be classified. &nbsp;During development and learning, the number of spines increases, and then decreases with ageing. &nbsp;The pathologist <a href=\"http:\/\/dujs.dartmouth.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/marin-padilla.pdf\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" target=\"_self\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/dujs.dartmouth.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/marin-padilla.pdf&amp;target=_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Miguel Marin-Padilla<\/a>, in advocating that structural abnormalities in the brain are associated with mental retardation, found that the cerebral cortices of individuals with Down&#8217;s syndrome contained underdeveloped neurons with fewer dendrites and deformed dendritic spines. The term &#8216;dendrite&#8217; was coined by the Swiss cardiologist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whonamedit.com\/doctor.cfm\/2606.html\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" target=\"_self\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/www.whonamedit.com\/doctor.cfm\/2606.html&amp;target=_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wilhelm His<\/a> (1863-1934) in 1889, and <a href=\"http:\/\/synapses.clm.utexas.edu\/learn\/visualize\/visualize.stm\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" target=\"_self\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/synapses.clm.utexas.edu\/learn\/visualize\/visualize.stm&amp;target=_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Santiago Ram\u00f3n y Cajal<\/a> (1832-1934) first described dendritic spines in 1891.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/image003.png\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: center;\">Dendritic spines that serve to increase the surface of the receiving area of a neuron&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: left;\">See Axon, Axon hillock, Cerebellum (development), Cerebral cortex (or pallium), Down&#8217;s syndrome, Neurite, &nbsp;Neurotransmitters, Neuron, Nissl substance, Synapse, Receptive field&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Derived from the Greek word dendron meaning &#8216;tree&#8217;, in biology, it is a branch-like nerve cell process collecting incoming or afferent information in the form of electrical signals. &nbsp;It receives synapses from the axon terminals of neurons, but unlike a neuron it is not myelinated. &nbsp;Pyramidal neurons have a tall-tree-like apical dendrite plus some root-like &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/dendrite\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Dendrite&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-7676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-glossary","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}