Ultrastructural characteristics of electrical dendro-dendritic synapses (gap junctions (GJ) of stellate neurons of D2-D3 barrels were detected and analyzed in the complex morpho-functional investigations of rat barrel cortex. Considering the local character of dendritic branching of the barrel cells, which is limited by the borders of a single column, it may be suggested that GJ which account for only 7% of the whole number of synapses, may be the structural base of local intracolumnar electrotonic synchronization of pacemaker hyperpolarisation potentials of barrel neurons during the development of spindle activity in the corresponding column.

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