534 



PHYSIOLOGY 



CHAP. 



drawn attention to the structural characters of the cerehral 

 cortex, by study of the arrangement and morphological characters 

 of the cells which constitute its various layers. By long and 

 patient comparison of the different areas of the pallium he has 

 arrived at results which are of great interest, and which can be 

 summarised as follows : 



According to Brodmann, the fundamental type of the cerehral 

 cortex, from which all the other secondary types are differentiated 

 during foetal development (from the seventh month), consists of 

 six layers which may be clearly recognised, and are formed by 

 three strata rich in cells alternating with three layers poorer in 

 cells (Fig. 268). The first and sixth of these strata are constant 

 in all cortical regions of the adult human brain and all mammals. 

 Others, on the contrary, as the second and fourth granular layers, 

 vary greatly and may disappear in many regions of the adult 



human 1 train; the remaining 

 layers, the third and fifth, 

 present an intermediate grade 

 of variability. 



This structural six -layer 

 type is not permanent; 'in 

 many regions it is more or 

 less transitory. The numerous 

 secondary structural types that 



i. ZU( . oruuiUiia Ul lid CUlrtl (JUll V vjiuunJiio. -. -. , _ 



(Baillarger.) Approximately natural ^ size. ^ 1, develop IrOlll it lOrill almost 



nine-tenths of the entire cortex 

 of the adult human brain. 



These secondary types may 

 in their turn be grouped into two great categories : 



(a) Homotypical cortical formations, in which the structure is 

 fundamentally unchanged, the six layers persisting (Fig. 269). 

 The greater part (about three-quarters) of the cortex of the human 

 brain comes under this category. The numerous types which it 

 comprises are distinguished from each other by the varying 

 characters of the several cell layers. These characters are par- 

 ticularly the depth or thickness of the cortex, the size of the cells, 

 and, above all, the numerical richness of the cells which make up 

 the different layers. 



(&) Heterotypical cortical formations, which lose their funda- 

 mental structure during ontogeuetic development, either because 

 the layers increase in number, as in the case of the cortex of the 

 calcarine fissure (Fig. 270), or because some of the original six 

 layers disappear (Fig. 271). 



We said that some nine-tenths of the whole cortex of the 

 adult human brain belong structurally to the fundamental type of 

 the six cellular layers, either because they retain it throughout life, 

 or because they exhibit it in some stage of development. The 



Fio. 267. Sections of cerebral convolutions. 



show the six layers usually seen in the cortex 

 with the naked eye ; 2, appearance of a section 

 of a convolution from the neighbourhood of the 

 calcarine fissure. 



