Preferred centripetal conduction of dendritic spikes in alligator Purkinje cells

Abstract

Dendritic action potentials in alligator Purkinje cells tend to have a unidirectional preference which favors centripetal over centrifugal propagation. This unidirectional tendency funnels the peripherally evoked dendritic spikes into the lower dendrites and soma of these cells, and it allows the peripheral dendritic branches to operate to a certain extent as partially independent functional units.