A note on the distribution of dendritic spines

Some previously published data concerning the spatial distributions of dendritic spines are re-examined. It appears that such distributions are not completely random, but show a tendency towards repulsion, that is to say a deficiency of short inter-spine distances and an excess of long distances when compared to a totally random model. While this lack of total randomness contradicts an assumption underlying a previously published technique for estimating total spine number, it does not appear to seriously interfere with this technique.