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From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium

Dendrites are the treelike extensions that orginate from the soma of the neuron and form electrical and chemical synapses with both dendrites of other cells (dendro-dendritic synapses) and with axons (Axon-dendritic synaspes)and are considered to be the main 'input channels' of a neuron. Initially they were believed to only act as summations of axonic inputs, but recent research and theory has shown that they also play an important role in consciousness and have complex computational abilities beyond simple input summation.