PPT Slide
- Computer models of neurons are often extremely accurate and biologically plausible in terms of physiological details (types and density of channels, membrane properties, etc.)
- Dendritic morphology is usually either taken straight from experimental data (anatomically precise compartmental models), or simplified with coarse approximations, or neglected altogether, but it is never modeled.
- There is a wide agreement among neuroscientists that dendritic morphology does play an important role in neuronal integration, yet so far this role has not been completely clarified.
- The vast amount of neuroanatomical data in the literature and the recent progress in computer graphics and 3D modeling applications make it now possible to generate plausible virtual models of single neurons.