"Didier A. Depireux" <didier at tango.isr.umd.edu> wrote in
news:b7a69u$jhr$1 at grapevine.wam.umd.edu:
> John H. <johnh at faraway.xxx> wrote:
>>> "Cortical neurons receive 3000-10,000 synaptic contacts, 85% of which
>> are asymmetric and hence presumably excitatory...Absent any
>> inhibition, a
>> There's a lot more to the story than the number of synapses, there's
> also the physical location of the synapse. Those from fibers arising
> from thalamus and providing primary input tend to be close to the cell
> body, and large. Therefore a single EPSP from a thalamic input is a
> lot more effective than a large number of synapses being activated in
> the distal part of the dendritic tree. There are also shunting
> synapses etc, so you need more than just number of synapses before
> making these sweeping statements.
>> Didier
>
...and of course theres more to it that that. The density of receptors,
the level of G-protein coupling, the propensity for activting and
inactivating phosphylation
