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Nature 387, 851-853 (26 June 1997) |

Potassium channels:  Dendritic shock absorbers

Rafael Yuste1

Mammalian neurons have dendritic trees — branched structures with complex geometries — which have mesmerized researchers for over a century. In 1891, Santiago Ramón y Cajal noticed that whereas sensory neurons point their dendrites towards the periphery, they always send their axons towards the brain.