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Chklovskii,
Dmitri Optimal sizes of dendritic and axonal arbors I consider a topographic projection between two neuronal layers with different densities of neurons. Given the number of output neurons connected to each input neuron (divergence) and the number of input neurons synapsing on each output neuron (convergence), I find the widths of axonal and dendritic arbors which minimize total volume of axons and dendrites. Qualitatively, neurons of the less numerous layer should have wider arbors than the neurons of the more numerous layer. This rule agrees with the anatomical data from retinal and cerebellar neurons whose morphology and connectivity are known. The rule may be used to infer connectivity of neurons from their morphology.
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