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Definition of "cerebral cortex" []

  • The extensive outer layer of gray matter of the cerebral hemispheres, largely responsible for higher brain functions, including sensation, voluntary muscle movement, thought, reasoning, and memory. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "cerebral cortex" in a sentence
  • "In the cerebral cortex — that is, the thin covering which envelopes the entire surface of the brain — are distinguished various areas, connected by long nerve tracts with the organs of sense, the skin, the muscles, and in fact with the entire surface of the body."
  • "In other cases, a disease process of the blood-vessel system affects also the blood vessels of the brain, and thus injures the cerebral cortex (mental diseases due to the calcification of the blood vessels, arterio-scelerotic psychosis)."
  • "The cerebral cortex of a mammal is a sheet of grey matter, wrapped around the outside of the brain."