Introduction: Brain Topography

Here's a simple brain map of the left side I have drawn for you to give you a sense of the main gyri (convolutions of the cortex of neurons on top of the brain) and sulci (crevices made in the cortex between convolutions). Basically, the brain is mostly made of glial cells that provide support and protection to the neurons that are responsible for communication within the body and picks up information from the environment via our senses. The cortex is a layer of those neurons, but also we find ganglions or areas dense in neurons deeper in the brain. In general, the deeper or further area from the cortex, the most basic the function of that area. As a contrast, the cortical areas carry further processing and associations between new information received by the senses, common knowledge and other experiences of our past. There has been and still is the debate on whether functions in the brain are localized (organized in modules) or distributed (the brain processing all information uniformly). Nowadays, that debate seems quite useless, because as we learn more about the brain from brain injuries and disorders, we see that there is to a certain extent some processes done in specific areas. However, we are far from phrenology (the study of bulges on the skull to determine one’s personality) introduced by Gall at the beginning of the 19th century[1].

I would like to finish this post by wishing you all very nice holidays and don't stop thinking. Here's a haiku (Japanese poem of 5-7-5 syllables) I have written a while ago inspired by the brain's cortex. Hope you enjoy :)

The brain's cortex:

paper fan folding our sky's

glittering knowledge.

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[1] Phrenology. (n.d.). The Oxford Companion to the Body. Retrieved December 24, 2008, from Answers.com Web site: http://www.answers.com/topic/phrenology