What is the cerebral cortex?
Q: What is the cerebral cortex?
A: The cerebral cortex is the most important part of the brain that plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It is a sheet of neural tissue that is outermost to the cerebrum of the mammalian brain.
Q: How does the cortex function?
A: Different parts of the cortex have different functions. For example, memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness are some of the functions controlled by the cerebral cortex.
Q: What is the thickness of the human cerebral cortex?
A: The human cerebral cortex is 2–4 mm (0.08–0.16 inches) thick.
Q: What is the composition of the grey matter?
A: Grey matter is formed from neurons and their unmyelinated fibers.
Q: What is the composition of the white matter?
A: The white matter below the grey matter 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.
Q: What is the surface of the cerebral cortex like?
A: The surface of the cerebral cortex is folded in large mammals, and more than two-thirds of it in the human brain is buried in the grooves.
Q: What part of the brain is the largest in humans?
A: The cerebral cortex is by far the largest part of the brain in humans.
