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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Aug 8.
Published in final edited form as: Brain Struct Funct. 2011 Aug 23;217(2):435–446. doi: 10.1007/s00429-011-0342-9

Table 1.

Geometric analysis of the effect of sensory deprivation on somatic and dendritic parameters in non-pyramidal neurons

Domain Metric Mean sensory
deprived
n = 21		 SD sensory
deprived		 Mean
Control
n = 35		 SD
control		 t value (indep,
student)		 p value
Somatic Perimeter (µm) 67.248 11.549 73.789 17.329 −1.56820 0.121844
Somatic Area (µm2) 269.869 111.833 299.603 111.547 −1.00422 0.319112
Somatic Feret max (µm)a 24.614 6.008 26.609 7.102 −1.11026 0.271107
Somatic Feret min (µm)b 15.076 4.059 16.150 3.092 −1.18072 0.242152
Somatic Aspect ratioc 2.005 1.808 1.668 0.417 1.18366 0.240993
Somatic Compactnessd 0.733 0.127 0.741 0.108 −0.28795 0.774332
Somatic Convexitye 0.942 0.114 0.940 0.073 0.10844 0.913995
Somatic Form factorf 0.731 0.179 0.708 0.177 0.48061 0.632460
Somatic Roundnessg 0.552 0.160 0.561 0.158 −0.21194 0.832834
Somatic Solidityh 0.950 0.026 0.923 0.085 1.43483 0.156283
Dendritic Quantity 7.000 2.627 7.023 2.715 −0.03189 0.974664
Dendritic Nodes* 10.619 6.144 5.523 4.577 3.74788 0.000390
Dendritic Ends* 17.857 7.016 12.545 5.797 3.22497 0.001998
Dendritic Length (µm)* 913.076 429.786 546.336 276.350 4.15466 0.000100
Dendritic Mean length*,i 139.324 67.670 81.191 36.778 4.49564 0.000030
Dendritic Surface area (µm2) 3756.335 1862.085 2340.105 1188.486 3.71595 0.000432
Dendritic Mean surface area*,i 573.962 284.364 351.255 166.751 3.97381 0.000185
Dendritic Volume (µm3)* 1433.891 864.023 926.720 555.980 2.85697 0.005788
Dendritic Mean volume*,i 219.502 125.816 141.495 82.652 2.98811 0.003998

Bold indicates statistical significance at p < 0.05

*

Statistical significance at α level preset = 0.05

a

Feret maximum: longest diameter of the soma

b

Feret minimum: longest diameter perpendicular to feret maximum

c

Aspect ratio: (feret max)/(feret min); as aspect ratio approaches 1, it is indicative that the soma is closer to a symmetric shape (e.g., circle or square)

d

Compactness: [√(4/π) × area]/(feret max); numerical values of somatic compactness closer to 1 represent a more perfect spherical soma

e

Convexity: (convex contour)/(perimeter); this parameter is indicative of the somatic surface areal profile; higher somatic convexity yields more indentations, which translates to higher estimated surface area to cellular volume ratio

f

Form factor: (4π × area)/(perimeter2); this value directly reflects the complexity of somatic perimeter; a higher numerical value represents a more complex somatic perimeter

g

Roundness: (4 × area)/(π× feret max2), similar to compactness but is another way to differentiate objects with small compactness values for the closeness to a perfect sphere

h

Solidity: the ratio of somata area as a whole over convex area, where values closer to 1 represent more solid (i.e., smooth, uniform) somata

i

Dendritic mean length, mean surface area, and mean volume are all derived from total dendritic length, total surface area, and total dendritic volume divided by the number of primary dendritic trunks, respectively