Cerebral cortex
hideThe cerebral cortex is a structure within the brain that plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It constitutes the outermost layer of the cerebrum. In preserved brains, it has a grey color, hence the name "grey matter". Grey matter is formed by neurons and their unmyelinated fibers, whereas the white matter below the grey matter of the cortex is formed predominantly by myelinated axons interconnecting different regions of the central nervous system. The human cerebral cortex is 2–4 mm (0.08–0.16 inches) thick.
The surface of the cerebral cortex is folded in large mammals, such that more than two-thirds of the cortical surface is buried in the grooves, called "sulci." The phylogenetically most recent part of the cerebral cortex, the neocortex, also called isocortex, is differentiated into six horizontal layers; the more ancient part of the cerebral cortex, the hippocampus (also called archicortex), has at most three cellular layers, and is divided into subfields. Relative variations in thickness or cell type (among other parameters) allow us to distinguish between different neocortical architectonic fields. The geometry of at least some of these fields seems to be related to the anatomy of the cortical folds, and, for example, layers in the upper part of the cortical ridges (called gyri) seem to be more clearly differentiated than in its deeper parts.
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News tagged with cerebral cortex
New source discovered for the generation of nerve cells in the brain
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Dec 01, 2009 |
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The research group of Professor Magdalena Gotz of Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munich (Germany) has made a significant advance in understanding regeneration processes in the brain. The researchers ...
New study finds men and women may respond differently to danger
Nov 29, 2009 |
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Researchers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study brain activation have found that men and women respond differently to positive and negative stimuli, according to a study presented today at the annual ...
Bad driving may have genetic basis, study finds
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 28, 2009 |
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Bad drivers may in part have their genes to blame, suggests a new study by UC Irvine neuroscientists.
Finding the seat of language? Researchers look into Broca's brain
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 26, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Harvard and University of California, San Diego, researchers report having pinpointed an area of the brain where three essential components of language -- word identification, grammar, ...
Sex-based prenatal brain differences found
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Oct 23, 2009 |
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Prenatal sex-based biological differences extend to genetic expression in cerebral cortices. The differences in question are probably associated with later divergences in how our brains develop. This is shown by a new study ...
Scientists demonstrate link between genetic defect and brain changes in schizophrenia
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Oct 16, 2009 |
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For decades, scientists have thought the faulty neural wiring that predisposes individuals to behavioral disorders like autism and psychiatric diseases like schizophrenia must occur during development. Even so, no one has ...
Researchers document how brain computes language
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 15, 2009 |
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A study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reports a significant breakthrough in explaining gaps in scientists' understanding of human brain function. The study - ...
Genetics of patterning the cerebral cortex
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 13, 2009 |
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The cerebral cortex, the largest and most complex component of the brain, is unique to mammals and alone has evolved human specializations. Although at first all stem cells in charge of building the cerebral ...
Scientists find mechanism that constructs key brain structure
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Sep 16, 2009 |
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Yale University researchers have found a molecular mechanism that allows the proper mixing of neurons during the formation of columns essential for the operation of the cerebral cortex, they report in the ...
Discovered key gene for the formation of new neurons
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Sep 14, 2009 |
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Scientists discovered a gene - called AP2gamma - crucial for the neural development of the visual cortex, in a discovery that can have implications for the therapeutics of neural regeneration as well as provide new clues ...
Discovery of 'alert status' area in brain opens door to treatment of impaired consciousness disorders
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Sep 14, 2009 |
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A new understanding of how anesthesia and anesthesia-like states are controlled in the brain opens the door to possible new future treatments of various states of loss of consciousness, such as reversible coma, according ...
Future angst? Brain scans show uncertainty fuels anxiety
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Aug 17, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Anyone who has spent a sleepless night anguishing over a possible job loss has experienced the central finding of a new brain scan study: Uncertainty makes a bad event feel even worse.
New imaging studies reveal mechanics of neuron migration
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Jul 23, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The development of the brain proceeds a little like the European settlement of North America. The earliest pioneers settled on the east coast with subsequent waves of settlers forming communities further ...
The fancier the cortex, the smarter the brain?
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Jul 17, 2009 |
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Why are some people smarter than others? In a new article in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Eduardo Mercado III from the University at Buffalo, The St ...
Researchers regenerate axons necessary for voluntary movement
Apr 06, 2009 |
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For the first time, researchers have clearly shown regeneration of a critical type of nerve fiber that travels between the brain and the spinal cord and which is required for voluntary movement. The regeneration was accomplished ...
