The mammalian cerebral cortex is anatomically organized into a six-layer
motif. It is currently unknown whether a corresponding laminar motif of
neuronal activity patterns exists across the cortex. Here we report such a
motif in the power of local field potentials (LFPs). Using laminar probes,
we recorded LFPs from 14 cortical areas across the cortical hierarchy in five
macaque monkeys. The laminar locations of recordings were histologically
identified by electrolytic lesions. Across all areas, we found a ubiquitous
spectrolaminar pattern characterized by an increasing deep-to-superficial
layer gradient of high-frequency power peaking in layers 2/3 and an
increasing superficial-to-deep gradient of alpha-beta power peaking in
layers 5/6. Laminar recordings from additional species showed that the
spectrolaminar pattern is highly preserved among primates—macaque,
marmoset and human—but more dissimilar in mouse. Our results suggest
the existence of a canonical layer-based and frequency-based mechanism
for cortical computation.