This is a similar finding to that of the article discussed in thread:
In that article they find that nearby synapses cooperate with each other, and that this cooperation decays exponentially with distance along the dendrite. They relate the dendrites segments to function compartments. They find that by default the dendrite functions with a few large compartments but that certain conditions (such as inhibition) can split the dendrite into many small compartments. Bitking’s article finds that in-vivo, dendrites typically operate with many very small compartments.