# Dendritic action potentials and computation in human layer 2/3 cortical neurons

**URL:** <https://discourse.numenta.org/t/dendritic-action-potentials-and-computation-in-human-layer-2-3-cortical-neurons/6992>\
**Category:** General Neuroscience\
**Created:** [January 2, 2020, 9:40pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/dendritic-action-potentials-and-computation-in-human-layer-2-3-cortical-neurons/6992 "2020-01-02T21:40:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TotalMegaCool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@TotalMegaCool](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/TotalMegaCool)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 9:40pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/dendritic-action-potentials-and-computation-in-human-layer-2-3-cortical-neurons/6992/1 "2020-01-02T21:40:56Z")

</div>

> **[Dendritic action potentials and computation in human layer 2/3 cortical neurons](https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6473/83)**
>
> A special developmental program in the human brain drives the disproportionate thickening of cortical layer 2/3. This suggests that the expansion of layer 2/3, along with its numerous neurons and their large dendrites, may contribute to what makes us...

 ![XOR](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/numenta/original/2X/a/a5854b32a9a65f13d0f143c02b4eb2543917d19e.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bkaz](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/bkaz/32/6455_2.png) [@bkaz](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/bkaz)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2020, 9:55pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/dendritic-action-potentials-and-computation-in-human-layer-2-3-cortical-neurons/6992/2 "2020-01-14T21:55:59Z")

</div>

They talk about dendrite performing XOR, but computation here is grey-scale, not binary. Isn’t it more like computing absolute difference, perhaps between outputs of dendritic segments, which sum over active synapses?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bkaz](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/bkaz/32/6455_2.png) [@bkaz](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/bkaz)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 10:26pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/dendritic-action-potentials-and-computation-in-human-layer-2-3-cortical-neurons/6992/3 "2022-07-06T22:26:10Z")

</div>

It was mentioned in the Economist, out of all places, so I found open access link: [http://www.mashqliu.com/Uploads/file/20201021/2020102120200969969.pdf](http://www.mashqliu.com/Uploads/file/20201021/2020102120200969969.pdf)  
This XOR could be a huge deal, but I don’t understand the mechanism behind it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EEProf](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/eeprof/32/5653_2.png) [@EEProf](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/EEProf)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2022, 1:21am UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/dendritic-action-potentials-and-computation-in-human-layer-2-3-cortical-neurons/6992/4 "2022-07-07T01:21:20Z")

</div>

> [@bkaz](#):
>
> It was mentioned in the Economist…

What? Where (specifically)?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bkaz](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/bkaz/32/6455_2.png) [@bkaz](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/bkaz)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2022, 2:08am UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/dendritic-action-potentials-and-computation-in-human-layer-2-3-cortical-neurons/6992/5 "2022-07-07T02:08:51Z")

</div>

Science section, neuron modeling, page 71. It mentions Numenta too, as avoiding catastrophic forgetting.  
More recent overview of dendritic spiking: [Redirecting](https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0306-4522(22)00063-X)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bitking](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/bitking/32/3099_2.png) [@Bitking](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/Bitking)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2022, 3:11am UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/dendritic-action-potentials-and-computation-in-human-layer-2-3-cortical-neurons/6992/6 "2022-07-07T03:11:47Z")

</div>

Going from spiking to bursting, this just popped up on my Twitter feed:

> **[Burst-dependent synaptic plasticity can coordinate learning in hierarchical...](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.30.015511v1)**
>
> Synaptic plasticity is believed to be a key physiological mechanism for learning. It is well-established that it depends on pre and postsynaptic activity. However, models that rely solely on pre and postsynaptic activity for synaptic changes have, to...