How many receptors are on a typical dendrite in the thalamus?
As a neuroscientist who has worked in the thalamus, I can tell you categorically that that question does not make sense. Firstly, I strongly doubt that any paper will have said that there are 31% more RECEPTORS in general in the thalamus of bipolar sufferers. They will have qualified this with a type of receptor, i.e. 31% more NMDA receptors, or 31% more serotonin 5-HT2A receptors etc… Secondly, the thalamus is not a homogeneous lump; the different nuclei have vastly different properties. They’re neurons are different sizes, project to different regions and respond to neurotransmitters in different ways. Finally, it is very rare for a scientific study to quantify the physical number of receptors. Generally it’s given as some kind of density of receptors. The answer is very hard to guess, but I would suspect an average neuron might have between 1000, and 10,000 synapses, each with hundreds of synapses, the number might be somewhere between 100,000 and up.
