Cortical area

Cerebral cortex
The cerebral cortex is the outer layer depicted in dark violet.
Golgi-stained neurons in the cortex
Details
Part of	Cerebrum
Identifiers
Latin	Cortex cerebri
NeuroLex ID	Cerebral cortex
TA	A14.1.09.003 A14.1.09.301
FMA	61830
Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy []

The cerebral cortex is the outer layer of neural tissue of the cerebrum of the brain, in humans and other mammals. 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 plays a key role in memory, attention, perception, awareness, thought, language, and consciousness.

In large mammals, the cerebral cortex is folded, giving a much greater surface area in the confined volume of the skull. A fold or ridge in the cortex is termed a gyrus (plural gyri) and a groove or fissure is termed a sulcus (plural sulci). In the human brain more than two-thirds of the cerebral cortex is buried in the sulci. The human cerebral cortex is 2 to 4 millimetres (0.079 to 0.157 in) thick.

The cerebral cortex is composed of gray matter, consisting mainly of cell bodies (with astrocytes being the most abundant cell type in the cortex as well as the human brain in general) and capillaries. It contrasts with the underlying white matter, consisting mainly of the white myelinated sheaths of neuronal axons.