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Dendritic Spine Plasticity Lab

Watch dendritic spines grow, shrink and prune themselves along a real dendrite branch, driven by a leaky-integrator calcium trace of local synaptic activity — structural plasticity, not synaptic weight change.

Neuroscience & Biophysics2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

This simulator visualizes structural synaptic plasticity: a single dendrite branch studded with spines, each growing, shrinking, forming or being pruned according to a real activity-dependent calcium rule. Every spine integrates its own local synaptic input into a leaky calcium trace; when that trace crosses a growth threshold for long enough the spine enlarges, and when it stays below a lower threshold the spine shrinks and is eventually pruned. Drag a local burst zone along the dendrite, toggle a spontaneous background rate, or trigger a deprivation pulse, and watch new filopodia sprout, some stabilizing into lasting spines and most retracting — while live plots track spine density and one tracked spine's calcium and size over time.

⚙ Under the hood

A 2D canvas displays a dendrite branch with dynamic spines that grow, shrink or are pruned based on local synaptic activity. Controls include toggling activity zones and spontaneous input, adjusting various rates and time constants.

neurosciencestructural plasticitydendritic spinescalcium signalingsynaptogenesis

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install