At present, a growing number of laboratories are acquiring the capability of simultaneously monitoring the extracellular activity of over a hundred single neurons in both anaesthetized and awake animals. This paradigm, known as multielectrode recordings, is changing the face of systems neuroscience by allowing, for the first time, the visualization of the function of entire neural circuits at work. Current methods of multielectrode recording employ state of the art technologies; two potential new avenues of research will likely emerge from the further development of these experimental paradigms.