ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some models, based on a comb-like structure that mimics a spiny dendrite; where the backbone is the dendrite and the teeth are the spines. It discusses the statistical properties of combs and explains how to reduce the effect of teeth on the movement along the backbone as a waiting time distribution between consecutive jumps. The chapter provides an employment of a comb-like structure as a paradigm for further exploration of a spiny dendrite. It shows how a comb-like structure can sustain the phenomenon of anomalous diffusion, reaction–diffusion, and Levy walks. The chapter illustrates how the same models can also be useful to deal with the mechanism of the translocation wave/translocation waves of CaMKII and its propagation failure. It presents a brief introduction to the fractional integro-differentiation in the appendix. Fractional diffusion inside the spines is described by fractional diffusion inside the teeth.
