Cited by 148Neural dynamics and brain functionNeuroscience and Neuropharmacology ResearchMultisensory perception and integration

Neocortical Layer 1: an elegant solution to top-down and bottom-up integration

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Schuman, Benjamin, Dellal, Shlomo, Prönneke, Alvar, Machold, Robert, Rudy, Bernardo·2021·Annual Review of Neuroscience

Abstract

Many of our daily activities, such as riding a bike to work or reading a book in a noisy cafe, and highly skilled activities, such as a professional playing a tennis match or a violin concerto, depend upon the ability of the brain to quickly make moment-to-moment adjustments to our behavior in response to the results of our actions. Particularly, they depend upon the ability of the neocortex to integrate the information provided by the sensory organs (bottom-up information) with internally generated signals such as expectations or attentional signals (top-down information). This integration occurs in pyramidal cells (PCs) and their long apical dendrite, which branches extensively into a dendritic tuft in layer 1 (L1). The outermost layer of the neocortex, L1 is highly conserved across cortical areas and species. Importantly, L1 is the predominant input layer for top-down information, relayed by a rich, dense mesh of long-range projections that provide signals to the tuft branches of the PCs. Here, we discuss recent progress in our understanding of the composition of L1 and review evidence that L1 processing contributes to functions such as sensory perception, cross-modal integration, controlling states of consciousness, attention, and learning.

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Crossref · 10.1146/annurev-neuro-100520-012117

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  • The distal compartment gets signals from neuromodulatory sources, other cortical regions, and non-lemniscal thalamus.

    “the distal compartment receives input from neuromodulatory centers [36], other cortical areas [37–39], and the non-lemniscal thalamus [40,41]”

    From Testing circuit-level theories of consciousness in humans (2026) · cites this paper as [36]

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  1. Jones EG. 2007. The Thalamus. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press

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Authors
Schuman, B., Dellal, S., Prönneke, A., Machold, R., & Rudy, B.
Affiliations
New York University (US)
Corresponding author
Rudy, Bernardo
Venue
Annual Review of Neuroscience
Published
2021-07-08
Volume
44
Issue
1
Pages
221-252
ISSN
  • 0147-006X (ISSN-L)
  • 1545-4126
OpenAlex
W3138514668
Cited by
148
References
204
Citations by year
2026: 22 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 47 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 8
FWCI
3.62
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Annual Review of Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute of Mental Health (T32MH096331)
  • National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS107257, P01NS074972, R01NS110079, F31NS106793)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
Keywords
top-down processing, bottom-up processing, pyramidal neurons, apical dendrites, sensory perception, cross-modal integration, consciousness, attention, learning, cortical integration
MeSH terms
Dendrites, Learning, Pyramidal Cells, Neocortex

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