Branching Law for Axons

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dc.creatorChklovskii, Dmitri B.
dc.creatorStepanyants, Armen
dc.date2003-02-12
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T05:48:47Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T05:48:47Z
dc.descriptionWhat determines the caliber of axonal branches? We pursue the hypothesis that the axonal caliber has evolved to minimize signal propagation delays, while keeping arbor volume to a minimum. We show that for a general cost function the optimal diameters of mother ($d_0$) and daughter ($d_1$, $d_2$) branches at a bifurcation obey a branching law: $d_{0}^{ν+2}=d_{1}^{ν+2} + d_{2}^{ν+2}$. The derivation relies on the fact that the conduction speed scales with the axon diameter to the power $ν$ ($ν=1$ for myelinated axons and $ν=0.5$ for non-myelinated axons). We test the branching law on the available experimental data and find a reasonable agreement.
dc.description8 pages, 4 figures
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0302039
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0302039
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/85155
dc.subjectBiological Physics
dc.subjectCondensed Matter
dc.subjectGeneral Physics
dc.subjectNeurons and Cognition
dc.titleBranching Law for Axons
dc.typetext

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