Basket cells (BC)--an exceptional category of cortical interneurons is a basic component of intercolumnar, lateral and callosal inhibition of pyramidal and nonpyramidal neocortical neurons. BC terminals--basket plexuses and pericellular nestles contact with bodies, axonal hillock and proximal regions of pyramidal neurons dendrites and double-bouquet cells, forming reciprocal relations with them in accordance with domen-selection principle. BC establish ties between each other and interconnect by means of autapses. The structure, neurochemical specialization and spatial organization of neocortical basket cells was described. Modern conceptions on histophysiology of basket cell inhibition were analysed basing on results of the authors original investigations and data available in literature. A hypothesis according to which basket plexus may be thought of as an inhibiting integrator, equaling excitation in a cluster of several pyramidal cells is under substantiation.