Abstract
“Column,” like “gene,” has both conceptual and linguistic shortcomings. The simple question “what is a column” is not easy to answer and the word itself is not easy to replace. In the present article, I have selected five points, in no way comprehensive or canonical, but which may nevertheless serve as a prompt and aid for further discussions and re-evaluation. These are: that anatomical columns are not solid structures, that they are part of locally interdigitating systems, that any delimited column also participates in a widely distributed network, that columns are not an obligatory cortical feature, and that columns (as “modules”) occur widely in the brain in non-cortical structures. I focus on the larger scale macrocolumns, mainly from an anatomical perspective. My position is that cortical organization is inherently dynamic and likely to incorporate multiple processing styles. One can speculate that the distributed mappings within areas like piriform cortex may resemble at least one mode of neocortical processing strategy.
Highlights
The column as basic unit and defining cortical attribute has been a compelling, not to say seductive idea
It can refer to smallscale minicolumns, to larger scale macrocolumns, and to multiple different structures within both categories (Jones 2000; Rockland and Ichinohe, 2004; DeFelipe, 2005; Horton and Adams, 2005)
It can refer to a functional or to an anatomical grouping. (2) “Column” invites over-simplification
Summary
Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA Reviewed by: Nick Swindale, The University of British Columbia, Canada Javier DeFelipe, Cajal Institute, Spain Keywords: collateralization, cytochrome oxidase, layer 2 honeycomb, modularity, terminal arbors, thalamocortical modules, zinc-positive connections
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