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From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium

Cortical columns are considered to be the basic computational unit of the neocortex^[1] and their quantity are the main determinant of the intelligence of a specific mammal and the general intelligence of the species it is a part of. They are macrocolumns which consists of about a thousand minicolumns which are found all throughout the neocortex, with a diameter of roughly 0.5mm which is also about the distance between the center of two separate columns.