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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience pp 1–6Cite as

Cortex: Overview

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Anatomically, the cerebral cortex is the outermost neuronal tissue of the brain, and it is believed to play a key role in sensation, perception, higher cognitive functions, and motor control. It is a layered structure referred to as the gray matter, because it contains largely cell bodies as compared to the white matter containing largely myelinated axons. The evolutionary origin can be traced back to reptiles, but it first appeared as a uniform structure in early mammals. The increase in the size of this layered cortical sheet during evolution is believed to be crucial for the development of human cognition and ultimately human culture during human brain evolution. Even though many entries in this section on “Cortex: Models and Computation” are applicable to the [hippocampus] as well, the focus is on the phylogenetically younger six-layered neocortex.

Why is it so interesting and important to investigate the cortex using modeling? If the co-occurrence of the...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Adaptive and Regenerative Software Systems, Universität Rostock, Rostock, Germany

    Lars Schwabe

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  1. Lars Schwabe
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Correspondence to Lars Schwabe .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA

    Ranu Jung

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Schwabe, L. (2014). Cortex: Overview. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_784-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_784-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7320-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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