cerebral cortex

[ suh-ree-bruhl kawr-teks, ser-uh- ]

noun

1. the furrowed outer layer of gray matter in the cerebrum of the brain, associated with higher brain functions such as voluntary movement, learning, memory, coordination of sensory information, and the expression of individuality. prefrontal cortex ( def ).

cerebral cortex

1. The layer of gray matter in vertebrates that covers the cerebral hemispheres and is composed of folds of neurons and axons. The cerebral cortex is responsible for higher functions of the nervous system, including voluntary muscle activity and learning, language, and memory.

cerebral cortex

1. The surface layer of gray tissue of the cerebrum , frequently called the gray matter. The large size of the cerebral cortex in humans distinguishes them from other animals. Specific parts of the cortex control specific functions, including sensation, voluntary muscle movement, thought, reasoning, and memory.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cerebral cortex¹

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

Our team’s idea was to break up that monolith into tiny sensors that could be distributed across the cerebral cortex.

From Singularity Hub 

The mapped region encompasses the various layers and cell types of the cerebral cortex, a region of brain tissue associated with higher-level cognition, such as thinking, planning, and language.

From Singularity Hub 

For example, the ongoing oscillations in electrical activity surging through the cerebral cortex, known as brain waves, are suddenly suppressed when a person moves a limb — or even thinks about moving it.

From Quanta Magazine

Scientists can use the interruption in electrical traffic in the cerebral cortex to trigger a computer to activate a motor in a prosthetic arm, or to click a virtual mouse on a computer screen.

From Quanta Magazine

This often occurs after a person suffers a stroke or other injury to the visual cortex, the part of the cerebral cortex that processes visual information.

From Nautilus

Rocket has a “cybernetic skeletal structure, enhanced phalange and metacarpal bones, and a genetically augmented cerebral cortex.”

From The Daily Beast

This, of course, is equivalent to postulating the cerebral cortex as the exclusive seat of higher intellection.

From Project Gutenberg

Nothing could be more unphilosophical, for example, than to speak of “intellectual cells” (Denkzellen) in the cerebral cortex.

From Project Gutenberg

All characteristic features of the full epileptic onset can be produced in animals deprived of the related cerebral cortex.

From Project Gutenberg

It is therefore to items regarding the functions of the great sheet of cerebral cortex that we may now pass.

From Project Gutenberg

Detached from the control panel of his cerebral cortex his body mechanism functioned perfectly.

From Project Gutenberg