Epileptic temporal cortices, removed from 3 patients with intractible partial epilepsy (IPE) during neurosurgery, were studied. Pyramidal neurons (40–50 per slice) in laminae III, V and white matter, were injected with lucifer yellow. Samples were examined in a confocal laser scanning microscope (Biorad 600) and individual cells scanned at 0.1–1 μm incremental levels. 2-D maximal linear projection was used for overview. Frames (50–60) of scanned neurons were transformed into 3-D volumes, using VoxelView software on a Silicone Graphics workstation and rotated. All samples contained neurons with duplicated apical dendrites, additional basal dendrites or were misplaced in a horizontal position in the white matter. The relation between these preliminary observations and the disease is discussed.