Complex microstructures of sensory cortical connections.

The neocortex has a distinctive laminar and modular organization. Although important questions remain regarding structure and function at this level of organization, recent studies are addressing a finer scale of synaptic and network microstructure. New findings concerning network properties are rapidly emerging from approaches in which dual or triple intracellular recordings in vitro are combined with analyses of cell and synaptic morphology, as well as from experiments designed to label multiple cell populations.