Brief seizures cause dendritic injury

► Seizures cause acute dendritic beading and loss of dendritic spines of cortical neurons in mice. ► The severity of dendritic injury is dependent on the duration of the seizures. ► Even brief (< 5 min) seizures cause some moderate dendritic injury. ► Dendritic injury from brief seizures recovers over 2 weeks, but status epileptus may cause irreversible dendritic damage.