Autapses

So what are autapses good for? For many years, autapses in the brain had seemed like anatomical curiosities of unknown practical utility. Quite recently, however, experiments have begun to expose ways in which autapses might play subtle, but important, roles in brain function. One kind of experiment suggests that autaptic selfinhibition might act like a pendulum in a clock, maintaining the precision with which a neuron fires trains of action potentials and thereby paces other neuronal circuits. Other experiments have suggested that autapses may allow a unique kind of regional self-control. By targeting autapses to just one or two of its dendritic branches, a neuron may custom-control parts of itself.