Subcortical

Cerebral cortex
Tissue slice from the brain of an adult macaque monkey (Macaca mulatta). The cerebral cortex is the outer layer depicted in dark violet. Source: BrainMaps.org
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 largest region of the mammalian brain and plays a key role in memory, attention, perception, cognition, awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. The cerebral cortex is the most anterior (rostral) brain region and consists of an outer zone of neural tissue called gray matter, which contains neuronal cell bodies. It is also divided into left and right cerebral hemispheres by the longitudinal fissure, but the two hemispheres are joined at the midline by the corpus callosum.

At the cellular and circuit level, the cerebral cortex is characterized by two primary organizational features: 1) across its surface it is divided into functional areas that serve various sensory, motor, and cognitive functions, and 2) it is subdivided into several layers that organize the input and output connectivity of resident neurons. These two fundamental properties provide modular functionality.

In large mammals, the cerebral cortex is usually folded, providing a greater surface area in the confined volume of the cranium. Increased surface area is thought to be important because it allows for the addition and evolution of a greater diversity of functional modules, or areas. 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 cerebral cortex contains a large number of neuronal and glial cell bodies, as well as their intricate dendritic formations and axonal projections, which connect at synapses to form basic functional circuits. The cerebral cortex is entirely made of gray matter, contrasting with the underlying white matter, which consists mainly of axons traveling to and from the cortex, their myelinated sheaths, and the cell bodies of oligodendrocytes.