A ubiquitous spectrolaminar motif across independent studies, including Mackey et al.’s own data
Year: 2025
Type: preprint
Abstract: Our study (Mendoza-Halliday et al., 2024) made two contributions: (1) discovery of a ubiquitous cortical motif and (2) a tool derived from it-the Frequency-based Layer Identification Procedure (FLIP and vFLIP). Mackey et al. critique the tool, questioning its advantage over classic current source density (CSD) analysis, and reason backwards to challenge the motif's ubiquity. In our rebuttal, we confirm the spectrolaminar motif in diverse cortical areas using data from multiple research groups (who joined us in this rebuttal) as well as Mackey et al.'s own dataset. Additionally, we introduce vFLIP2, an improved version of our tool that addresses their comments. It reliably identified and localized the motif in our data and Mackey et al.'s data. Our findings reaffirm the motif's ubiquity. We value Mackey et al.'s comments, which helped refine our tool.
Institutions: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pittsburgh, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Boston University, National Institutes of Health, Vanderbilt University, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, McGovern Institute for Brain Research
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4410193042