such and included in the analysis if they were located within Zilles Cg1 or Cg3 region, demonstrated the characteristic pyramidal-shaped cell body and if they were located between 200–500 μm from the cortical surface. In addition, the following criteria had to be satisfied: the basilar tree’s branches were contained in the section being observed; branches could not be broken or obscured; the extent of the tree was evenly and fully impregnated, including dendritic spines. Basilar dendrites of each neuron were traced at high magnification (100× oil objective). While tracing the neuron, the software automatically assigned the branching order starting at the first bifurcation of the basilar dendrite. Next, in order to determine the dendritic complexity of the neurons, a Sholl analysis was performed (Figure 1) wherein the mean of all neurons in an individual animal was used to perform statistics. Dendritic complexity can be defined as the total length of dendrites, combined with the number of branches and bifurcations.
