"BilZ0r" <BilZ0r at TAKETHISOUThotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns935C7960D8B02BilZ0rhotmailcom at 202.20.93.13...
> "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
More "trees" to obscure the "forrest" (a place where especially people of
science typically fail to find the obvious)! ;-)
