The cerebral cortex is your brain’s outermost layer. It has a wrinkled appearance due to the grooves and folds that increase its surface area. Here, we look at the anatomy of the cerebral cortex and ...

The remarkable ability of the cortex to form its complex folds does not depend upon how many neurons it has or the intelligence of its bearer, but instead is governed by the same simple rules that ...

MRI provides unparalleled access to the living brain. A single MRI machine can take many different measurements (known as modalities) — from establishing the relative density of neuron-insulating ...

In the first blog in this series, we set forth the idea that the human cerebral cortex has so drastically modified the physical environment and so completely dominates the context in which the human ...

The neocortex is part of the human brain’s cerebral cortex where higher cognitive functioning is thought to originate from. Due to the natural grooves and ridges in the brain, the neocortex is ...

The brain is the “control center” of the body. Together with the spinal cord, it makes up the central nervous system. Various parts of the brain are responsible for movement, breathing, and other ...

When we say someone has a quick mind, it may be in part thanks to our expanded cerebellum that distinguishes human brains from those of macaque monkeys, for example. Sometimes referred to by its Latin ...

A layer deep in the cerebral cortex, which is the innermost layer of the mammalian brain, has recently been found to play a role in the regulation of brain states associated with wakefulness and ...

The liver, the heart, the gonads, and a host of other human organs evolved long before the cerebral cortex reached its current level of power, control, and influence over the human organism. So did, ...

Researchers have discovered that parts of the human brain age more slowly than previously thought—particularly in the region that processes touch. By using ultra-high-resolution brain scans, they ...