Recent research suggests that a number of neuronal characteristics, traditionally believed to stem from the cell body or soma, may actually originate from processes in the dendrites. This discovery has significant implications for the study of degenerative diseases and for understanding the different states of brain activity during sleep and wakefulness.
The brain is an intricate network comprising billions of neurons. Each neuron’s cell body, or soma, engages in simultaneous communication with thousands of other neurons through its synapses. These synapses act as links, facilitating the exchange of information. Additionally, each neuron receives incoming signals through its dendritic trees, which are highly branched and extend for great lengths, resembling the structure of a complex and vast arboreal network.
For the last 75 years, a core hypothesis of neuroscience has been that the basic computational element of the brain is the neuronal soma, where the long and ramified dendritic trees are only cables that enable them to collect incoming signals from its thousands of connecting neurons. This long-lasting hypothesis has now been called into question.
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