A vertically oriented structural and functional unit that passes through several layers of the cerebral cortex and consists of 80–120 neurons. The human brain contains approximately 2×10⁸ (200 million) of these minicolumns. The diameter of each mini-column is approximately 28-40 μm. In the process of development of the nervous system, minicolumns differentiate from embryonic progenitor cells and usually encompass from 2 to 6 cytoarchitectonic layers of the cortex.