PHYSICAL-MECHANISMS UNDERLYING NEURITE OUTGROWTH - A QUANTITATIVE-ANALYSIS OF NEURONAL SHAPE

We show thatover a range of length scales rthe shapes of quasi-two-dimensional retinal neurons are fractal objects, and hence may be quantitatively characterized in part by their fractal dimension df. We analyze the shapes of numerous retinal neurons, both in vivo and in vitro. The neurons in vivo are found to have a fractal dimension df of 1.680.15. We also propose an explanation of certain stages of neuronal shape development in terms of a diffusion-limited-aggregation model, which predicts df=1.700.1. © 1990 The American Physical Society.