Table 1.
Dendritic spine and synapse dimensions
| Brain region (cell/spine type) | Spine density (#/μm dendrite) | Spine volume (μm3 or fl) | Spine surface area (μm2) | PSD area (μm2) | Neck diameter (μm) | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adult rats | ||||||
| CA1, SR | 2.89# | 0.054# (0.003–0.56) | 0.83 ± 0.63** (0.13–4.4) | 0.069# (0.008–0.54) | 0.14# (0.027–0.99) | Harris and Stevens (1988); Megias et al. (2001); Cooney et al. (2002); Bourne et al. (2007b); Popov et al. (2007); Nicholson and Geinisman (2009); Mishchenko et al. (2010) |
| CA1, SL-M | 0.81# | 0.11*a (0.006–0.52) | 0.090*a (0.018–0.42) | 0.166*a (0.043–0.72) | Megias et al. (2001); Donohue et al (2006); Nicholson and Geinisman (2009) | |
| CA3 (thorny excrescences) | 1.17 ± 0.15*** | 15.1# (9.2–35.9) | 2.4 ± 1.3**b (0.91–5.1) | Chicurel and Harris (1992); Rollenhagen et al. (2007); Stewart et al. (2005) | ||
| Cerebellum (Purkinje cells) | 4.87*c (2.0–14.3)f | 0.12 ± 0.02** (0.06–0.18) | 1.12 ± 0.18** (0.69–1.63) | 0.15 ± 0.08** (0.04–0.36) | 0.20 ± 0.04** (0.09–0.31) | Harris and Stevens (1988); Lu et al. (2009) |
| Striatum (medium spiny neurons) | (2.2–4.6) | 0.12* (0.04–0.33) | 1.46* (0.61–3.14) | (0.1–0.5) | Wilson et al. (1983) | |
| Lateral amygdala | 2.1*d | 0.7* (SA−)e 2.2* (SA+)e | 0.05* (SA−)e 0.19* (SA+)e | Ostroff et al. (2010) | ||
| Adult mice | ||||||
| CA1 | 0.038 ± 0.036** | 0.043 ± 0.031** | Schikorski and Stevens (1997) | |||
| Cerebellum | 0.18 ± 0.06** (0.06-0.42) | 1.86 ± 0.36** (1.08–3.10) | 0.13 ± 0.06** (0.03–0.27) | Spacek and Hartmann (1983) | ||
| Visual cortex | 0.15# (0.01–0.81) | 2.08 ± 0.83** (0.48–4.76) | 0.15# (0.01–0.69) | 0.20 ± 0.06** (0.09–0.51) | Spacek and Hartmann (1983); Arellano et al. (2007) | |
| Barrel cortex | 0.45*–0.83* | (0.015–0.77) | (0.36–4.24) | (0.006–0.64) | Knott et al. (2006) | |
| Piriform cortex | 0.10# | 0.098# | Schikorski and Stevens (1999) | |||
# Median of the means reported in cited studies.
* Mean.
** Mean ± SD.
*** Mean ± SEM (range).
a Mean was calculated across all spine types from the means and sample sizes reported in Nicholson and Geinisman (2009; Table 3).
b Mean ± SD was calculated from data reported in Rollenhagen et al. (2007; Table 1) to include all thorny excrescences from two age groups (P28 and P90–120).
c Mean was calculated from data reported in Lu et al. (2009) to include all Purkinje cell dendritic segments receiving granule cell inputs.
d Mean was calculated from data reported in Ostroff et al. (2010, Fig. 2G) to combine all types of spines.
e SA−, spines not containing spine apparatus; SA+, spines containing spine apparatus.
f Values in parentheses indicate range.