Fractal patterns for dendrites and axon terminals

Sidiney G. Alves, Marcelo L. Martins, Paula A. Fernandes and JoséE.H. Pittella

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 1996, vol. 232, issue 1, 51-60

Abstract: In the present paper we analyse the morphology of dendrites of cerebellar Purkinje cells and axon terminals in the cerebral cortex of rats. We find that these three-dimensional biostructures are fractal over at least one decade of length scales, with fractal dimension 1.68 ± 0.08 for the Purkinje cells and 1.28 ± 0.17 for the axon terminals. We also discuss the largelly unknown mechanisms underlying neurite outgrowth which frequently develops neuronal shapes with fractal dimensions very different from that predicted for diffusion-limited-aggregation model (DLA) in three dimensions.

Date: 1996
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:232:y:1996:i:1:p:51-60

DOI: 10.1016/0378-4371(96)00139-2

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