The fact that neurons on top of each other have similar firing properties is very interesting, and is indeed a uniform organizing principle of the cortex. Calli

The fact that neurons on top of each other have similar firing properties is very interesting, and is indeed a uniform organizing principle of the cortex. Calling this “minicolumns” is very misleading because it implies some level of horizontal organizational structure. That is not a universal organizational principle of the brain—it exists in certain areas, in certain species. It’s an accident of history that a lot of the early neuroscience in mammals was done in primary visual cortex in macaques and primary sensory cortex of rats and mice, which do work like this (though at very different spatial scales). This led to the hypothesis of the “cortical column” as a universal, intermediate level of structure in the cortex, but when you look at other areas they just don’t work like that. However this idea is so attractive that it just won’t die. Meanwhile, cortical column fans (including neuroscientists!) engage in a motte-and-bailey argument, where the bailey is “the cortex is divided into columns that represent an intermediate level of modularity” and the motte is “neurons on top of each other usually have similar firing properties”.