Brief Introduction to Cerebral Cortex

The outer layer of the cerebral hemisphere is termed the cerebral cortex. This is inter-connected via pathways that run sub-cortically. It is these connections as well as the connections from the cerebral cortex to the brainstem, spinal cord and nuclei deep within the cerebral hemisphere that form the white matter of the cerebral hemisphere. The deep nuclei include structures such as the basal ganglia and the thalamus. The main difference between cerebrum and cerebral cortex is that cerebrum is the largest part of the brain whereas cerebral cortex is the outer layer of the cerebrum.