a vertical slab of striate cortex in which all the neurons are maximally responsive to stimuli of the same orientation. Adjacent columns have slightly different orientation preferences, so that electrode penetration tangential to the cortical surface that passes through many columns would encounter neurons with orientation preferences that shift smoothly around a reference axis. Compare ocular dominance column. [first described in the 1960s and 1970s by U.S. neurophysiologist David Hubel (1926–2013) and Swedish neurophysiologist Torsten Wiesel (1924– )]