ReviewNeuroImage2021
Cortical hierarchy, dual counterstream architecture and the importance of top-down generative networks.
Review in NeuroImage, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 66 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
66 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 132 citations in OpenAlex.
- Integrating Neuroimaging and Machine Learning to Predict Mental Disorder Outcomes: A Systematic Review.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Pooled it
- Spectral organization of individualized connectome harmonics across brain structure, function and cognition.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The primate claustrum as a hub for precision weighting of prediction errors across the cortical hierarchy.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Differentiation of cortical areas: effects of free energy minimization with broken symmetry.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2026Article
- A mean-field model of neural networks with PV and SOM interneurons reveals connectivity-based mechanisms of gamma oscillations.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Predictive acoustical processing in human cortical layers.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Hierarchical and non-hierarchical network flows generate complementary representational dynamics in human visual cortex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Planar, spiral, and concentric traveling waves distinguish behavioral states in human memory.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Nested spatiotemporal theta-gamma waves organize hierarchical processing across the mouse visual cortex.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The representation of omitted sounds in the mouse auditory cortex.Nature communications · 2026Article
- From comparative connectomics to large-scale working memory modeling in macaque and marmoset.Cell reports · 2026Article
- Rapid computation of high-level visual surprise.iScience · 2025Article
- Circuit-level dynamics and propagation of slow wave activity modulate their interplay during the awakening process.iScience · 2025Article
- Exploiting neuro-inspired dynamic sparsity for energy-efficient intelligent perception.Nature communications · 2025Review
- Bifurcation in space: Emergence of functional modularity in the neocortex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- From comparative connectomics to large-scale working memory modeling in macaque and marmoset.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- A hierarchical multiscale model of forward and backward alpha-band traveling waves in the visual system.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Consciousness or pseudo-consciousness? A clash of two paradigms.Nature neuroscience · 2025Article
- Layer 6 corticocortical neurons are a major route for intra- and interhemispheric feedback.eLife · 2025Article
6 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Hierarchy is a major organizational principle of the cortex and underscores modern computational theories of cortical function. The local microcircuit amplifies long-distance inter-areal input, which show distance-dependent changes in their laminar profiles. Statistical modeling of these changes in laminar profiles demonstrates that inputs from multiple hierarchical levels to their target areas show remarkable consistency, allowing the construction of a cortical hierarchy based on a principle of hierarchical distance. The statistical modeling that is applied to structure can also be applied to laminar differences in the oscillatory coherence between areas thereby determining a functional hierarchy of the cortex. Close examination of the anatomy of inter-areal connectivity reveals a dual counterstream architecture with well-defined distance-dependent feedback and feedforward pathways in both the supra- and infragranular layers, suggesting a multiplicity of feedback pathways with well-defined functional properties. These findings are consistent with feedback connections providing a generative network involved in a wide range of cognitive functions. A dynamical model constrained by connectivity data sheds insight into the experimentally observed signatures of frequency-dependent Granger causality for feedforward versus feedback signaling. Concerted experiments capitalizing on recent technical advances and combining tract-tracing, high-resolution fMRI, optogenetics and mathematical modeling hold the promise of a much improved understanding of lamina-constrained mechanisms of neural computation and cognition. However, because inter-areal interactions involve cortical layers that have been the target of important evolutionary changes in the primate lineage, these investigations will need to include human and non-human primate comparisons.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.