The idea of cortical columns isn’t like the 6-layer-cortex. The cortex just isn’t organized into little column-shaped modules. It’s true that if you record two neurons right on top of each other, they’ll have a similar receptive field/preferred direction/…. BUT there is no consistent horizontal organization of neurons into columns. There’s whisker barrels, which reflect the way rat and mouse whiskers work, and there’s ocular dominance columns, which are a totally different thing at a different spatial scale. But there’s no global organizing principle that should be called “cortical columns”. It’s a lovely idea that would be great if it were true—-it would be so much easier to understand the brain if there were a common unit of organization larger than a neuron but smaller than a brain! But it’s not so.