Electrical diversity of neurons in sensory cortices

The classification of neuronal types is a complex task with numerous molecular, anatomical, and functional (electrical) features have been identified as informative in discriminating neuronal populations. The functional characterization of neurons has traditionally been carried out with predefined sets of parameters such as firing rate and action potential generation threshold. Here we provide an objective method to choose what parameters are most informative about a neuron’s functional cell type. Using this method we show that despite the significant molecular and anatomical variability across neurons, functional characterization of neuronal activity identifies 9 and 11 distinct neuronal subpopulations in the upper layers of the somatosensory and visual cortices respectively. This novel classification method will help to unravel the functional (electrophysiological) diversity of cellular classes throughout the nervous system. Further, the thorough comparison between the different classes of cells will provide a solid building block for the study of the sensory cortices.