The synaptotropic hypothesis is a neurobiological hypothesis of neuron

Neuron

A neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electrical and chemical signaling. Chemical signaling occurs via synapses, specialized connections with other cells. Neurons connect to each other to form networks. Neurons are the core components of the nervous...

al growth and synapse

Synapse

In the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that permits a neuron to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another cell...

 formation. The hypothesis was first formulated by Vaughn in 1988, and remains a focus of current research efforts. The hypothesis proposes that the formation of new synapses (Synaptogenesis) can guide the growth of dendrite

Dendrite

Dendrites are the branched projections of a neuron that act to conduct the electrochemical stimulation received from other neural cells to the cell body, or soma, of the neuron from which the dendrites project...

s. The dendrites that find a synapse that successfully activates it are encouraged to mature and stabilize. The reasons for this stabilization after the growth of a synapse are as yet undiscovered, but there are hints that the activation of a synapse, somehow changes the biochemistry of the Focus Mechanism, that reabsorbs unused dendritic fibrils as part of the preliminary stages of new fibril proliferation.