Fractal Analysis of Neuronal Dendritic Branching Pattern in the Human Neostriatum: a Revised Classification Scheme

摘要

Neuronal dendritic branching and the complexity of the dendritic tree are commonly used as an additional criterion in the classification of the human neostriatal neurons. The present study quantifies these two morphological properties by means of the fractal analysis. The present classification of the human neostriatal neurons is reorganized due to the number of primary dendrites and degree of the dendritic arborization. While the cerebral hemisphere does not influence on the morphology of three neuronal types proposed, we prove out that these types have significantly different shapes and the straightnesses of the individual dendrites to each other.