the.com/cortex
the wrinkled rind of you, folded small so genius fits inside a skull
means The outer layer of an organ, especially the brain's crinkled grey surface where higher thinking happens, though the word also covers the cortex of kidneys, plants, and other tissues.
from Straight from Latin cortex, meaning 'bark' or 'rind' — the tough outer skin of a tree or fruit. Anatomists borrowed it because the brain's outer layer wraps the inner stuff like bark wraps a trunk. It's a cousin of words for 'cutting' and 'stripping off,' which fits: bark is what you'd peel away to get inside.
- surface area
- unfolds to roughly a 2-square-foot pizza
- thin skin
- only 2-4 millimeters thick despite running everything
- the folds
- wrinkles let more brain fit in less space
- six layers
- stacked sheets of neurons, each with a job
- latin roots
- means bark, like the rind of a tree
visual cortex — primary visual processing area in occipital lobe, discovered to process ~30% of cerebral cortex in primates
prefrontal cortex — executive function region in humans, damage to phineas gage's prefrontal cortex in 1848 changed his personality
motor cortex — controls voluntary movement in primary motor cortex m1, mapped in homunculus by wilder penfield in 1950s