What does cerebral cortex mean?

Definitions for cerebral cortex
cere·bral cor·tex

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word cerebral cortex.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. cerebral cortex, cerebral mantle, pallium, cortexnoun

    the layer of unmyelinated neurons (the grey matter) forming the cortex of the cerebrum

Wiktionary

  1. cerebral cortexnoun

    The grey, folded, outermost layer of the cerebrum that is responsible for higher brain processes such as sensation, voluntary muscle movement, thought, reasoning, and memory.

Wikipedia

  1. Cerebral cortex

    The cerebral cortex, also known as the cerebral mantle, is the outer layer of neural tissue of the cerebrum of the brain in humans and other mammals. The cerebral cortex mostly consists of the six-layered neocortex, with just 10% consisting of allocortex. It is separated into two cortices, by the longitudinal fissure that divides the cerebrum into the left and right cerebral hemispheres. The two hemispheres are joined beneath the cortex by the corpus callosum. The cerebral cortex is the largest site of neural integration in the central nervous system. It plays a key role in attention, perception, awareness, thought, memory, language, and consciousness. The cerebral cortex is part of the brain responsible for cognition. In most mammals, apart from small mammals that have small brains, the cerebral cortex is folded, providing a greater surface area in the confined volume of the cranium. Apart from minimising brain and cranial volume, cortical folding is crucial for the brain circuitry and its functional organisation. In mammals with small brains there is no folding and the cortex is smooth.A fold or ridge in the cortex is termed a gyrus (plural gyri) and a groove is termed a sulcus (plural sulci). These surface convolutions appear during fetal development and continue to mature after birth through the process of gyrification. In the human brain the majority of the cerebral cortex is not visible from the outside, but buried in the sulci. The major sulci and gyri mark the divisions of the cerebrum into the lobes of the brain. The four major lobes are the frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal lobes. Other lobes are the limbic lobe, and the insular cortex often referred to as the insular lobe. There are between 14 and 16 billion neurons in the human cerebral cortex. These are organised into horizontal cortical layers, and radially into cortical columns and minicolumns. Cortical areas have specific functions such as movement in the motor cortex, and sight in the visual cortex. Visual cortex is located in the occipital lobe.

ChatGPT

  1. cerebral cortex

    The cerebral cortex, often referred to as the cortex, is the outermost layer of the brain, consisting of folded gray matter. It plays a pivotal role in many complex brain functions including memory, cognition, attention, consciousness, thought, language, and awareness. The cerebral cortex is divided into four main regions or lobes, the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and temporal lobe, each responsible for different functions.

Wikidata

  1. Cerebral cortex

    The cerebral cortex is the outermost sheet of neural tissue of the cerebrum of the brain in some vertebrates. It covers the cerebrum and cerebellum, and is divided into left and right hemispheres. The cerebral cortex plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It consists of up to six horizontal layers, each with a different composition in terms of neurons and connectivity. The human cerebral cortex is 2 to 4 millimetres thick. In preserved brains, it has a grey color, hence the name "grey matter". In contrast to grey matter that is formed from neurons and their unmyelinated fibers, the white matter below them is formed predominantly by myelinated axons interconnecting neurons in different regions of the cerebral cortex with each other and neurons in other parts of the central nervous system. The surface of the cerebral cortex is folded in large mammals, such that more than two-thirds of it in the human brain is buried in the grooves, called "sulci". The phylogenetically most recent part of the cerebral cortex, the neocortex, is differentiated into six horizontal layers; the more ancient part of the cerebral cortex, the hippocampus, has at most three cellular layers, and is divided into subfields. Neurons in various layers connect vertically to form small microcircuits, called columns. Different neocortical architectonic fields are distinguished by variations in the thickness of these layers, their predominant cell type and other factors such as neurochemical markers.

U.S. National Library of Medicine

  1. Cerebral Cortex

    The thin layer of gray matter on the surface of the cerebral hemisphere that develops from the telencephalon and folds into gyri. It reaches its highest development in man and is responsible for intellectual faculties and higher mental functions.

Editors Contribution

  1. cerebral cortex

    A form of matter in the brain of a human being and animal.

    The cerebral cortex has a role in perception, awareness and memory.


    Submitted by MaryC on September 6, 2020  

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of cerebral cortex in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of cerebral cortex in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5

Examples of cerebral cortex in a Sentence

  1. William Dobyns:

    These children have a very severe form of microcephaly, the brain is not just small, it's small with malformations of the cerebral cortex and calcifications. It has the appearance of a very severe, destructive injury to the brain.


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"cerebral cortex." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/cerebral+cortex>.

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