Fig. 1.

Illustration of different kinds of dendritic remodeling. A schematic of a pyramidal neuron, showing along the apical dendrite how different features of dendrites can display plasticity. The dendrites themselves may become shorter or longer, existing branches may be lost or additional ones gained. Dendritic spines can also be formed or removed to alter spine density. Finally, spines can be characterized into subtypes (typically thin, stubby and mushroom), and their morphology (e.g. head diameter) can change. These features are also plastic on basal dendrites, and on other neuronal types.