Structural Plasticity of Dendritic Spines

The geometry of a dendritic spine influences the
dynamics of calcium in the spine and is regulated
during synaptic plasticity. For instance, a moderate
rise in calcium can cause elongation, while a very
large increase in calcium causes fast shrinkage and
the eventual collapse of a spine. In this book, we
presented computational models for the calcium
mediated spine-stem restructuring. This expansion
and shrinkage depends on the frequency of the
synaptic input to a spine as well as the activation
of the calcium channels located on the spine head
membrane. We are using computational studies to
investigate the changes in spine density and
structure for a variety of synaptic inputs of
different frequencies. In particular, we are using
the models to investigate the mechanisms underlying
changes in spine density and morphology and the role
of spine plasticity in long-term depression (LTD)
and long-term potentiation (LTP). Finally, for the
integration of our system, we also presented two new
algorithms based on spectral collocation method for
these types of problems and compare the results with
the conventional finite difference methods.