Great Domains (From Individual to Social Cognition)

Morphological Heterogeneity (Experimental: From dendritic spine to neuron)

e-Team: Luis A. Aguilar Mendoza, Josué Renner, Christian Pitot, Enver Oruro, Grace Pardo and Alberto A. Rasia-Filho.

Introduction

The human brain is composed of a vast diversity of neuron types, each exhibiting unique morphological characteristics that support distinct computational, integrative, and adaptive functions. Understanding this morphological heterogeneity, from individual dendritic spines to complex neuronal architectures, requires experimental exploration and computational modeling to uncover how structure underlies function across multiple spatial and temporal scales. This section brings together insights from morphodynamic neuroscience to highlight how cellular morphology contributes to connectivity, plasticity, and brain organization, spanning from the microarchitecture of dendrites to large-scale network dynamics. The challenges identified here outline the conceptual and technical frontiers needed to bridge cellular morphology with emergent brain function and dysfunction.   

Main Challenges

1. Functional implications of morphological diversity

2. Modeling neuronal morphodynamic complexity

3. The future from Morphodynamics to Macromorphodynamics

Recommended Literature 

Renner, J., & Rasia-Filho, A. A. (2023). Morphological Features of Human Dendritic Spines. Advances in neurobiology, 34, 367–496. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36159-3_9

Vásquez, C. E., Knak Guerra, K. T., Renner, J., & Rasia-Filho, A. A. (2024). Morphological heterogeneity of neurons in the human central amygdaloid nucleus. Journal of neuroscience research, 102(4), e25319. https://doi.org/10.1002/jnr.25319

Rasia-Filho, A. A., Guerra, K. T. K., Vásquez, C. E., Dall'Oglio, A., Reberger, R., Jung, C. R., & Calcagnotto, M. E. (2021). The Subcortical-Allocortical- Neocortical continuum for the Emergence and Morphological Heterogeneity of Pyramidal Neurons in the Human Brain. Frontiers in synaptic neuroscience, 13, 616607. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsyn.2021.616607

Dall'Oglio, A., Dutra, A. C., Moreira, J. E., & Rasia-Filho, A. A. (2015). The human medial amygdala: structure, diversity, and complexity of dendritic spines. Journal of anatomy, 227(4), 440–459. https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.12358

Rasia-Filho, A. A., Dalpian, F., Menezes, I. C., Brusco, J., Moreira, J. E., & Cohen, R. S. (2012). Dendritic spines of the medial amygdala: plasticity, density, shape, and subcellular modulation by sex steroids. Histology and histopathology, 27(8), 985–1011. https://doi.org/10.14670/HH-27.985

Reberger, R., Dall'Oglio, A., Jung, C. R., & Rasia-Filho, A. A. (2018). Structure and diversity of human dendritic spines evidenced by a new three-dimensional reconstruction procedure for Golgi staining and light microscopy. Journal of neuroscience methods, 293, 27–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneumeth.2017.09.001