Dictionary of Biological Psychology
The CEREBRAL CORTEX of the human brain is extensively folded—it has a very familiar wrinkled appearance. The cerebral cortex of rodents however is entirely smooth, and other species show varying de grees of gyri and sulci development.
The development of extensive folding of the cerebral cortex is an evolutionary strategy for packing more tissue into the limited space available within the skull. (To get an idea of this, think of the cerebral cortex as folded out to a single sheet, which can then be folded into a small space.) Gyri, singular gyrus (from Greek, gyros: a circle or ring) are the ridges; sulci, singular sulcus (from Latin, sulcus: a furrow) are the grooves. The term FISSURE is used to denote a particularly large sulcus.
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