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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Jan 19.
Published in final edited form as: Brain Res. 2010 Oct 31;1369:36–45. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2010.10.091

Figure 6.

Figure 6

Schematic illustrating how dendritic varicosities (DVs) and the intervening constrictions can alter the electrotonic spread of potentials from dendrites to the soma, effectively isolating the soma from excitatory or inhibitory drive. This figure does not represent actual data, but is a graphic illustration of the known passive electrical properties of dendrites. Vo: initial membrane potential. Vd: voltage at distance d from the source. d: distance from the source on the dendrite. rm: membrane resistance. ri: internal resistance. The space constant, also known as λ, is the square root of the ratio of rm and ri.