Intracortical circuitry: one of psychiatry's missing assumptions

Abstract

The brain operates as a constellation of modular functions focused on processing information. Neurons are arranged into repetitive circuits called minicolumns which themselves are assembled into macrocolumns. Most of the attention in neuroscience has focused on the experiences of organization--neuronal cellular function at one end and signal cascades and macrocolumns at the other. However, the search for pathological substrates of varied mental conditions are leading to a reassessment of the role of minicolumns in mental disorders. An appreciation of the modular framework of the brain provides a better insight as to how minicolumns contribute to the larger scope of information processing in the normal and pathological state.