Name	Username
Stacey	Glabella
Lydia	lko4
Dana	Danaalee
Margarita	Margarit@
Cindy	Cinner

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The neocortex (Latin for "new bark" or "new rind") is a part of the brain of mammals. It is the outer layer of the cerebral hemispheres, and made up of six layers, labelled I to VI (with VI being the innermost and I being the outermost). The neocortex is part of the cerebral cortex (along with the archicortex and paleocortex, which are cortical parts of the limbic system). It is involved in higher functions such as sensory perception, generation of motor commands, spatial reasoning, conscious thought and, in humans, language. Other names for the neocortex include neopallium ("new mantel") and isocortex ("equal rind").







So where exactly is the neocortex??

The neocortex is the part of the brain that we most commonly refer to as the grey matter and is the outer layer of the brain such as the images shown above. The neocortex consists of four major regions, which are: The Frontal Lobe, shown in RED below. The Parietal Lobe, shown in YELLOW below. The Temporal Lobe, shown in BLUE below. Last, but not least the Occipital Lobe, shown in GREEN below.


So, what is the neocortex?

The neocortex, is considered to be the portion of the cerebral cortex that allows humans the ability perform complex tasks and use high-level thinking. Although mammals have this part of the brain too, it is proportionally much smaller then the rest of the brain and thus used less. The neocortex is basically what separates us humans from other mammals.







So is it just a blob of stuff?

The neocortex may just look bland, but it's everything but that. Believe it or not, the neocortex contains 100 billion cells! Wow!Each individual cell contains 1,000 to10,000 synapses or connections, that look like this. This picture was taken from an article provided by the Sanger Institute, Brain Waves: Nerve cells talking - and making sense. Extensive studies were done to discover how, during the brains development, synapses are built. It is a truly remarkable study of brain development. In studying the functions of these synapses we can gain a better understanding of how they fail, causing brain damage and dementia. In doing this, a solution to those problems becomes more reachable. The article describes an amazing and helpfull leap forward in this field of study.