Published on September 30, 2019 | Updated on September 30, 2019

CORTEX conference by David van Essen

September 10th, 2019

Mapping Primate Cerebral Cortex: Structure, Function, Connectivity, Development, and Evolution

Cerebral cortex is the dominant structure of the human brain and is largely responsible for what makes us unique as a species and as individuals. This lecture will discuss how recent advances in noninvasive imaging combined with invasive approaches in animal models are transforming our understanding of human brain structure, function, connectivity, evolution, and development, and in health and disease. It will include an overview of basic principles of cortical organization and connectivity from studies of laboratory animals and analyses of individual variability in humans. It will highlight a new map (‘parcellation’) of human cerebral cortex based on data from the Human Connectome Project. Comparisons of cortical organization across species reveal valuable insights regarding what makes us uniquely human.