Structure and function of the cerebral cortex
Abstract
The grey matter of the cerebral cortex is a convoluted, layered sheet of tissue, 2-3 millimetres thick in man but with a surface area of several hundred square centimetres. This is not an adaptation to promote gaseous exchange, or heat loss - rather, if the grey matter is compact in at least one dimension, it is outgoing axons that may readily escape it; once outside, they club together and form the cortical white matter. If grey and white were intermixed, the average separation of neurons would be greater, creating extra neural 'wiring'. The speed of cortical computation would suffer accordingly.
- Publication:
-
Current Biology
- Pub Date:
- June 2007
- DOI:
- 10.1016/j.cub.2007.03.044
- Bibcode:
- 2007CBio...17.R443S