DETERMINATION OF FRACTAL DIMENSION OF PHYSIOLOGICALLY CHARACTERIZED NEURONS IN 2-DIMENSIONS AND 3-DIMENSIONS

Although there is a growing interest in the application of fractal ana lysis in neurobiology, questions about the methodology have restricted its wider application. In this report we discuss some of the underlyi ng principles for fractal analysis, we propose the cumulative-mass met hod as a standard method and we extend the applicability of fractal an alysis to both 2 and 3 dimensions. We have examined the relationship b etween the method of log-log Shell analysis and fractal analysis and h ave found that they correlate well. Measurements of physiologically ch aracterized retinal ganglion cells indicate that different cell types can have significantly different fractal dimensions. Such differences may allow the correlation of the physiological type of a neuron with i ts morphological fractal dimension.