Involved in controlling patterning and neuronal circuit formation at the laminar, cellular, subcellular and synaptic levels. Promotes neurite outgrowth of both axons and dendrites. Interacts with LRRC4. Expression is restricted primarily to neurons of the CNS, particularly in the cerebral cortex, habenular nucleus and superior colliculus. Low levels in lung, kidney, heart and spleen. Expression is detected from embryonic day 9. Strong expression is maintained from embryonic day 14 well into adulthood. The laminin N-terminal domain mediates 1:1 binding to NGL ligand with sub-micromolar affinity. Three NGL-binding loops mediate discrimination for LRRC4/NGL2 among other NGLs by binding specifically to its LRR repeats. This specificity drives the sorting of a mixed population of molecules into discrete cell surface subdomains (By similarity). N-glycosylated.