Cortical Signal Propagation: Balance, Amplify, Transmit.

The neural code of cortical processing remains uncracked; however, it must necessarily rely on faithful signal propagation between cortical areas. In this issue of Neuron, Joglekar et al. (2018) show that strong inter-areal excitation balanced by local inhibition can enable reliable signal propagation in data-constrained network models of macaque cortex.