Dendritic signal processing in the trigeminal motoneurons

神经元的树突长期以来被认为是电被动结构，仅将突触电位传递到索马。然而，最近的研究表明，一些神经元的树突不仅是被动的，而且还包含引起兴奋和影响突触整合的电压敏感电导。本研究应用双光子钙离子成像技术，探讨三叉神经运动神经元索马胞体对动作电位（AP）反应的活性树突特性。我们发现三叉神经运动神经元的树突具有放大和修饰突触输入的活性，调节树突的兴奋性有助于防止病理条件下三叉神经运动神经元的不规则兴奋，如磨牙症。

The dendrites of neurons have long been considered as electrically passive structures that merely transmit synaptic potentials to the soma. However, the recent studies have shown that the dendrites of some neurons are not only passive but also contain voltage-sensitive conductances that cause an excitation and affect synaptic integration. In this study, we used the two-photon calcium imaging techniques to explore the active dendritic properties in response to the action potentials (APs) in soma of trigeminal motoneurons. We found that the dendrites of trigeminal motoneurons have active properties that could serve as the amplification and modification of synaptic inputs and the regulation of dendritic excitability contribute to the prevention of irregular excitability of trigeminal motoneurons in pathological conditions such as bruxism.