Intracellular recording/labeling and integration of a neuronal models into a standard brain atlas:

Neurons are the basic signaling units of the brain. One remarkable feature of individual neurons is their ability to communicate, over certain distances, via action potentials – i.e., all or-none ‘spikes’ ensuring efficient information transfer. The frequency and temporal pattern of the spiking activity is an essential element of the neuronal code. Thus, the intracellular recording technique, performed by means of a sharp glass electrode inserted into one single neuron, allows physiological characterization of the basic coding units in a living brain. The tiny insect brain is an outstanding model for such invasive experiments.

By combining the electrophysiological recording with iontophoretic staining, utilizing a fluorescent dye in the tip of the electrode, the neuron can be visualized. An essential advantage of working with the moth is that the small brain can be scanned in a confocal microscope without slicing it. Thereby, we obtain an image of the whole neuron. 

By systematically identifying individual neurons physiologically and morphologically, we get detailed knowledge about the connection patterns and the neural code at distinct synaptic levels. The data are also presented in the database https://www.insectbraindb.org/app/