How have scientists been able to determine the function of the cerebral cortex?
One way is if someone injures part of their brain, such as having a stroke or some type of injury. Then function lost is assumed to be related to the part of the brain that was injured. A famous example is Phineas Gage (see first link). A more modern way to study function of the cerebral cortex is using brain imaging techniques such as fMRI. In fMRI the person is given a task, and parts of the brain where the fMRI sees an increase in brain activity are assumed to have function associated with the task that the person is doing (see second link).
