Detailed Phenotyping of the Physiology, Structure, and Connectivity of Individual Neocortical Neurons

In this chapter we describe contemporary methods employed to characterize the detailed features of individual neocortical pyramidal neurons in the mammalian brain. First, a brief overview is provided of widely used approaches to study the intrinsic properties of neurons, including their morphology, physiology, and transcriptomic profile. Next, we describe in detail multi-modal methods that we and others have developed and employ to quantify both these intrinsic features and extrinsic features of identified pyramidal neurons such as presynaptic glutamatergic and GABAergic inputs and relationship to neuropil elements such as glial cells and vasculature. The use of this multi-modal approach enables a more comprehensive, nuanced, and detailed characterization of neuron types and the circuits to which they contribute.