IMPACT OF TOPOLOGICAL VARIABILITY ON DENDRITIC GEOMETRY

The development of neuronal branching patterns mainly proceeds by branching events at terminal segments. The randomness in the occurrences of these events is the major cause of the variability that is observed in the final topological structures of neuronal trees. A general observation in neuronal trees is the existence of a branch power relation between the diameters of the segments at branch points. Because of this correlation, total area and volume will become dependent on branching pattern topology. A quantitative assessment of this finding is given. How topological variation propagates into variation in total area and volume, using topological growth models for producing random tree topologies and a simple metrical parametrization is discussed.