Daily NewsNews & OpinionThe Scientist Cortical Census Scientists document the characteristics and connections of mouse neocortical neurons to establish the most detailed microcircuit map to date. By Ruth Williams | November 26, 2015 DANIEL BERGER, XIAOLONG JIANG, FABIAN SINZ, XAQ PITKOW, ANDREAS TOLIAS The morphology and electrophysiology of approximately 2,000 neurons in the visual cortices of adult mice have been catalogued, along with the connectivity between more than 11,000 possible pairs of these cells. The resulting census, published in the journal Science today (November 26), reveals a number of new interneuron cell types as well as hitherto unappreciated patterns of local connections. “I’m incredibly enthusiastic about what these authors have done,” said neuroscientist Giorgio Ascoli of the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study in Fairfax, Virginia, who was not involved in the work. “It’s a truly impressive tour de force in terms of optimization of every experime