Cerebral cortex

The **cerebral cortex** is the highly folded outer layer of the cerebrum in the brain. It is composed of billions of neurons organized into six distinct layers (in most regions), with specialized areas responsible for sensory perception, voluntary motor control, language comprehension and production, memory storage and retrieval, emotional modulation, and higher-order cognitive processes such as attention and planning[1][4][5][7]. The cortex is divided into lobes—frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital—and includes specialized regions like the insular and limbic cortices. Its structure allows for complex information processing through extensive interconnections both within itself and with subcortical structures[1][4]. The cerebral cortex plays a central role in many neurological diseases but is not a single molecular target; rather it comprises numerous cell types (neurons/glia) expressing thousands of potential molecular targets.

Other names

CortexCerebral cortical mantlePallium