Spines of dendrites

Abstract

The brain performs constant and often quite successful adaptation to changing environmental conditions. The most important structural and functional manifestation of this adaptive reaction of the brain is an adequate change in the number, external shape, internal structure, speed of structural rearrangements, and the chemical composition of dendritic spines, the elements of synapses that perceive the signal. In Alzheimer’s disease, the pathology of spines is detected earlier than the clinical manifestations. The first scientist who understood the role of the dendritic spines was Ramon Cajal.