Hierarchy provides a unifying principle for the macroscale organization of anatomical and functional properties across primate cortex, yet microscale bases of specialization across human cortex are poorly understood. Anatomical hierarchy is conventionally informed by invasive tract-tracing measurements, creating a need for a principled proxy measure in humans. Moreover, cortex exhibits marked interareal variation in gene expression, yet organizing principles of cortical transcription remain unclear. We hypothesized that specialization of cortical microcircuitry involves hierarchical gradients of gene expression. We found that a noninvasive neuroimaging measure-MRI-derived T1-weighted/T2-weighted (T1w/T2w) mapping-reliably indexes anatomical hierarchy, and it captures the dominant pattern of transcriptional variation across human cortex. We found hierarchical gradients in expression profiles of genes related to microcircuit function, consistent with monkey microanatomy, and implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders. Our findings identify a hierarchical axis linking cortical transcription and anatomy, along which gradients of microscale properties may contribute to the macroscale specialization of cortical function.

The preparation of large, low-entropy, highly coherent ensembles of identical quantum systems is foundational for many studies in quantum metrology [1], simulation [2], and information [3]. Here, we realize these features by leveraging the favorable properties of tweezer-trapped alkaline-earth atoms [4][5][6] while introducing a new, hybrid approach to tailoring optical potentials that balances scalability, high-fidelity state preparation, site-resolved readout, and preservation of atomic coherence. With this approach, we achieve trapping and optical clock excited-state lifetimes exceeding 40 seconds in ensembles of approximately 150 atoms. This leads to half-minute-scale atomic coherence on an optical clock transition, corresponding to quality factors well in excess of 10 16 . These coherence times and atom numbers reduce the effect of quantum projection noise to a level that is on par with leading atomic systems [7,8], yielding a relative fractional frequency stability of 5.2(3) × 10 −17 (τ /s) −1/2 for synchronous clock comparisons between sub-ensembles within the tweezer array. When further combined with the microscopic control and readout available in this system, these results pave the way towards long-lived engineered entanglement on an optical clock transition [9] in tailored atom arrays.

Coherent control of high-quality-factor optical transitions in atoms has revolutionized precision frequency metrology. Leading optical atomic clocks rely on the interrogation of such transitions in either single ions or ensembles of neutral atoms to stabilize a laser frequency at high precision and accuracy. In addition to absolute time-keeping, the precision and coherence afforded by these transitions has enabled observations of gravitational time dilation on short length-scales, and facilitated applications in quantum information. Here, we demonstrate a new platform for interrogation and control of an optical clock transition based on arrays of individual strontium atoms held within optical tweezers that combines key strengths of these two leading approaches. We report coherence times of 3.4 seconds, record single-ensemble duty cycles up to 96% through repeated interrogation, and 4.7 × 10 −16 (τ /s) −1/2 frequency stability commensurate with present-day leading platforms. These results establish optical tweezer arrays, and their associated capacity for microscopic control of neutral atoms, as a powerful tool for coherent control of optical transitions for metrology and quantum information science.