Is the Cerebral Cortex the highest portion of the brain?
The cerebral cortex is a structure within the brain that plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness.The human cerebral cortex is 2-4 mm (0.08-0.16 inches) thick. The surface of the cerebral cortex is folded in large mammals, wherein more than two-thirds of the cortical surface is buried in the grooves, called “sulci.” The phylogenetically most recent part of the cerebral cortex, the neocortex, is differentiated into six horizontal layers; the more ancient part of the cerebral cortex, the hippocampus (also called archicortex), has at most three cellular layers, and is divided into subfields. Relative variations in thickness or cell type (among other parameters) allow us to distinguish between different neocortical architectonic fields. With magnetic resonance brain scanners, it is possible to get a measure for the thickness of the human cerebral cortex and relate it to other measures. One study has found some positive association be
