Hofman M A
J Theor Biol. 1985 Jan 7;112(1):77-95. doi: 10.1016/s0022-5193(85)80117-x.
The cerebral cortex of mammals has been found to be uniformly organized, and to be composed of elementary processing units or modules having an essentially constant number of neurons. In the present paper the hypothesis is put forward that the relative proportion of local circuit neurons (LCNs) within a module reflects the evolutionary level of corticalization of a mammal. The modules, in turn, are interconnected so as to form basic neuronal networks or columns with a species-specific width varying from 90 to 310 microns. A mathematical formalism is presented from which the hypothetical ratio between LCNs and projection neurons, as well as the size of the cortical column and the number of modular units that it contains, can be calculated.
已发现哺乳动物的大脑皮层结构均匀，由基本处理单元或模块组成，这些单元或模块中的神经元数量基本恒定。本文提出一个假说，即模块内局部回路神经元（LCN）的相对比例反映了哺乳动物皮层化的进化水平。这些模块相互连接，形成基本的神经元网络或柱，其特定物种的宽度在90至310微米之间变化。本文给出了一种数学形式，据此可以计算LCN与投射神经元之间的假设比例，以及皮层柱的大小及其所含模块单元的数量。
