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Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Analysis of Dendritic Spine Morphology in Cultured CNS Neurons
Published on: July 13, 2011
Regulation of spine calcium dynamics by rapid spine motility
A Majewska1, A Tashiro, R Yuste
1Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA. akm21@columbia.edu
Abstract:
Dendritic spines receive most excitatory inputs in the CNS and compartmentalize calcium. Spines also undergo rapid morphological changes, although the function of this motility is still unclear. We have investigated the effect of spine movement on spine calcium dynamics with two-photon photobleaching of enhanced green fluorescent protein and calcium imaging of action potential-elicited transients in spines from layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons in mouse visual cortex slices. The elongation or retraction of the spine neck during spine motility alters the diffusional coupling between spine and dendrite and significantly changes calcium decay kinetics in spines. Our results demonstrate that the spine's ability to compartmentalize calcium is constantly changing.
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