For modelling the location of pyramidal cells in the human cerebral cortex, we suggest a hierarchical point process in that exhibits anisotropy in the form of cylinders extending along the z-axis. The model consists first of a generalised shot noise Cox process for the xy-coordinates, providing cylindrical clusters, and next of a Markov random field model for the z-coordinates conditioned on the xy-coordinates, providing either repulsion, aggregation or both within specified areas of interaction. Several cases of these hierarchical point processes are fitted to two pyramidal cell data sets, and of these a final model allowing for both repulsion and attraction between the points seem adequate. We discuss how the final model relates to the so-called minicolumn hypothesis in neuroscience.

中文翻译：

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模拟人大脑皮层锥体细胞的柱状结构

为了模拟人类大脑皮层中锥体细胞的位置，我们建议采用分层点过程，其中以沿z轴延伸的圆柱体形式表现出各向异性。该模型首先包括一个用于xy坐标的广义散粒噪声 Cox 过程，提供圆柱簇，然后是一个以xy为条件的z坐标的马尔可夫随机场模型-坐标，在指定的交互区域内提供排斥、聚集或两者。这些分层点过程的几种情况适用于两个锥体细胞数据集，其中允许点之间的排斥和吸引力的最终模型似乎足够了。我们讨论最终模型如何与神经科学中所谓的微型柱假设相关。