Datensatz

Zusammenfassung

This chapter presents an outline of a theory of the cerebral cortex. The number of cells in both hemispheres of the cerebral cortex of man amounts to about 1010. The majority of these belong to a type called the “pyramidal cell.” It is characterized, among other things, by an axon leaving the cortex at one point to re-enter it at another and to make synaptic connections there. The great internal complexity, compared to the complexity of the input and the output, is characteristic for the cerebral cortex. The fact that the cortex of man (and of other mammals) is the largest piece of gray matter of the whole brain is related to this complexity. The optic tectum, the most impressive cortex of lower vertebrates, is far less complex: the number of neurons in the (frog) tectum is about the same as the number of afferent fibers.