Dendritic spikes facilitate neuronal computation and they have been reported to occur in various regions of the dendritic tree of cortical neurons. Spikes that occur only on a select few branches are particularly difficult to analyze especially in complex and intertwined dendritic arborizations where highly localized application of pharmacological blocking agents is not feasible. Here, we present a technique based on highly targeted dendrotomy to tease out and study dendritic spikes that occur in oblique branches of cortical layer five pyramidal neurons. We first analyze the effect of cutting dendrites in silico and then confirmed in vitro using an ultrafast laser scalpel. A dendritic spike evoked in an oblique branch manifests at the soma as an increase in the afterdepolarization (ADP). The spikes are branch-specific since not all but only a few oblique dendrites are observed to evoke spikes. Both our model and experiments show that cutting certain oblique branches, where dendritic spikes are evoked, curtailed the increase in the ADP. On the other hand, cutting neighboring oblique branches that do not evoke spikes maintained the ADP. Our results show that highly targeted dendrotomy can facilitate causal analysis of how branch-specific dendritic spikes influence neuronal output.

树突状刺突促进神经元计算，据报道它们发生在皮质神经元的树突状树的各个区域。仅在少数几个分支上出现的尖峰尤其难以分析，尤其是在复杂且交织的树突状乔木中，药理学阻断剂的高度局部应用是不可行的。在这里，我们提出了一种基于高度针对性的牙本质切开术的技术，以梳理和研究在皮质五层锥体神经元的倾斜分支中发生的树突状刺。我们首先分析切割枝晶的效果在计算机上 然后确认 体外使用超快激光手术刀。倾斜分支中诱发的树突状刺突在体细胞中表现为后去极化（ADP）的增加。尖峰是特定于分支的，因为观察到的不是全部，而是只有少数倾斜的树突引起尖峰。我们的模型和实验均表明，切除某些引起树枝状突刺的斜枝会减少ADP的增加。另一方面，切开不引起尖峰的相邻斜枝可以保持ADP。我们的结果表明，高度靶向的树突切开术可以促进因分支特异性树突状刺突影响神经元输出而进行的因果分析。