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Cerebral cortex
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The cerebral cortex is the layer that covers the brain on the outside. It is gray matter, that is, neurons packed tightly against one another, and it is laid out in four lobes: frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital.
And it is not smooth. It is folded: the bulges are called gyri and the deep grooves between them are called sulci. That folding has a reason. The brain grew a great deal, but the skull had to stay small to fit through the birth canal. A big sheet stuffed into a small box: to fit, it wrinkles.
And not all of the cortex does the same thing. In the parietal lobe is the postcentral gyrus, which receives somatosensory information, that is, touch, body position, and temperature. In the frontal lobe is the precentral gyrus, where the primary motor cortex lives, the part that commands movement.
In brief
The cerebral cortex is the gray matter covering the outermost part of the brain, divided into four lobes: frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital.
It is folded into bulges called gyri alternating with deep grooves called sulci, which let a large brain fit into a skull that had to stay small for birth.
A big sheet stuffed into a small box: to fit, it wrinkles.
The postcentral gyrus of the parietal lobe receives somatosensory information, and the precentral gyrus of the frontal lobe houses the primary motor cortex.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingNeuroanatomy, Cerebral Cortex, StatPearlsPublished
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