neocortex Anat.
(niːəʊˈkɔːtɛks)
Also (with hyphen) neo-cortex.
[mod.L., f. neo- 1 e + cortex.]
The phylogenetically youngest portion of the cerebral cortex, which is co-extensive with the neopallium.
| 1909 C. U. A. Kappers in Arch. Neurol. & Psychiatry IV. 162 Just as in the pallium there can be distinguished three territories according to the connections which they exhibit, so the cortical structures occurring in them should be distinguished, according to the same principle, into a palæo-cortex, archi-cortex and neo-cortex. 1947 H. C. Elliott Textbk. Nerv. Syst. vii. 87/1 This first, or paleocortex..is soon overshadowed by the development of a general, or neocortex. 1948 [see neopallium]. 1964 J. Z. Young Model of Brain xiv. 234 Although it is notoriously dangerous to try to speak of the locality of ‘engrams’ in a mammal, there can be little doubt that they reside largely in the neocortex. 1972 T. W. Jenkins Functional Mammalian Neuroanat. xvi. 250/2 The area of the canine neocortex is 84·2 per cent of the entire hemispheric area. 1972 Science 19 May 804/1 We have used the development of the neocortex..as an index of generation length in extinct taxa. |
Hence neoˈcortical a., of or pertaining to the neocortex.
| 1909 Arch. Neurol. & Psychiatry IV. 163 The upper part of the lateral cortex layer has certainly already a neo-cortical character. 1971 Nature 11 June 397/1 All rats were killed 4 h later and the RNA was extracted from hippocarpal, thalamic and medial neocortical tissue. 1971 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 7 Oct. 5/1 There are other species like ourselves who through evolutionary quirk if not neocortical ascendancy lack biological commands to insure reasonable populations. |