ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the morphology of dendrites and on growth models to describe in detail their morphological characteristics, while the variation in the shape parameters and the topological structures are emphasized. Dendritic shape parameters are introduced and examples are given for the extent of their variations as found in observed dendritic trees. The study of segment length distributions means a new extension to this model and the results are presented here for the first time. The 3D dendritic geometry gets functional implications when the extra cellular space participates in the electrical circuitry in an inhomogeneous manner and/or when dendrites are connected to each other via electrical contacts. The mathematical modeling of dendritic growth on the basis of random behavior of growth cones has brought many dendritic shape parameters and their variations into a coherent framework.
