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Updated: May 26, 2026
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Two-Photon in vivo Imaging of Dendritic Spines in the Mouse Cortex Using a Thinned-skull Preparation
Published on: May 12, 2014
Functional organization of dendritic spines in mouse visual cortex layer 2/3 neurons
Kyle R Jenks1, Gregg R Heller2, Katya Tsimring2
1The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Iscience
|May 25, 2026
Summary
Synaptic visual inputs to mouse visual cortex neurons are not random. Spines exhibit global and local organization based on tuning correlation and proximity to the soma and neighboring spines.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Computational Neuroscience
- Systems Neuroscience
Background:
- Cortical neurons receive diverse excitatory synaptic inputs.
- The organization of these inputs across dendritic arbors is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the global and local organization of synaptic visual inputs onto dendritic spines in mouse visual cortex layer 2/3 excitatory neurons.
Main Methods:
- Utilized two-photon in vivo calcium imaging.
- Analyzed synaptic input organization in visually responsive and unresponsive neurons.
Main Results:
- Sharply tuned proximal spines showed higher somatic tuning correlation than distal spines.
- Responsive neurons had more responsive spines and higher pairwise tuning correlations.
- Spines on responsive neurons were locally clustered by correlated tuning, irrespective of distance from the soma.
Conclusions:
- Visual input distribution in the cortex is organized globally and locally.
- Organization is influenced by somatic correlation, distance, and neighboring spine correlations.
