Where does dendrite collide?

In neuroscience, dendrites are the branched processes that spread from a neuron's cell body and receive synaptic input, carrying it toward the soma where it is integrated. Ramón y Cajal's Histology of the nervous system of man and vertebrates established, against the reticular view, that these arbors belong to discrete cells and conduct signals in one direction, a foundation of the neuron doctrine. The referent is the receiving tree of a nerve cell, described by branching pattern, spine density, and conduction of local potentials, and it borrows only the tree shape from a snowflake's crystal arm or a river's drainage net.[1]

Unit

The branched receiving arbor of a single neuron

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Characterised by dendritic branching order, total length, spine density, and Sholl analysis

In solidification and crystal growth, a dendrite is the branched, tree-like crystal that forms when a solidifying front becomes unstable, throwing out a primary arm that sheds side branches as it advances into an undercooled melt. Mullins and Sekerka's 1964 Stability of a planar interface during solidification of a dilute binary alloy showed why a flat interface breaks down, giving the morphological-instability account from which dendritic growth follows. The referent is a crystalline growth morphology, from a snowflake to the grains inside a cast alloy, measured by arm spacing and tip radius, and it is a different thing from a neuron's arbor or a river net despite the shared branching look.[2]

Unit

The branched crystal morphology grown into an undercooled melt

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Characterised by primary and secondary arm spacing, tip radius, and growth velocity versus undercooling