Dendritic spikes have been observed in various neurons throughout the brain, from the neocortex and cerebellum to the basal ganglia, 50 years after their discovery by Llinás and colleagues. Dendrites have a marvellously different yet cliché collection of spikes, which are well defined in some cases for dendrite subregions. Despite their popularity, we only have a brief look at their role as acting creatures. This article will go over the entire range of dendritic spikes found in excitatory and inhibitory neurons, compare them in vivo versus in vitro, and discuss new studies depicting dendritic spikes in the human cortex. We concentrate on neocortical and hippocampal neurons and present a method for distinguishing and comprehending the broader role of dendritic spikes.
