the importance of intracortical inhibitory circuits in setting the feature - selective spatial organization of primary sensory cortices remains controversial . to address this issue , we examined the strength of interneuron - to - pyramidal cell connections across the rat anterior piriform cortex ( apc ) and found a pronounced gradient of increasing pyramidal cell inhibition along the apc rostro - caudal axis . 
 this functional heterogeneity could govern apc spatial activation in response to varying odor identities and features .