anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

s, the paleocortex, or paleopallium, is a region within the

telencephalon The cerebrum, telencephalon or endbrain is the largest part of the brain containing the cerebral cortex (of the two cerebral hemispheres), as well as several subcortical structures, including the hippocampus, basal ganglia, and olfactory bulb ...

in the vertebrate

brain The brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head ( cephalization), usually near organs for special ...

. This type of cortical tissue consists of three cortical laminae (layers of neuronal cell bodies). In comparison, the

neocortex The neocortex, also called the neopallium, isocortex, or the six-layered cortex, is a set of layers of the mammalian cerebral cortex involved in higher-order brain functions such as sensory perception, cognition, generation of motor commands, ...

has six layers and the archicortex has three or four layers. Because the number of laminae that compose a type of cortical tissue seems to be directly proportional to both the information-processing capabilities of that tissue and its phylogenetic age, paleocortex is thought to be an intermediate between the archicortex (or archipallium) and the

(or neopallium) in both aspects. The paleocortex (or paleopallium) and the archicortex (or the archipallium) of the

cerebral cortex The cerebral cortex, also known as the cerebral mantle, is the outer layer of neural tissue of the cerebrum of the brain in humans and other mammals. The cerebral cortex mostly consists of the six-layered neocortex, with just 10% consisting o ...

together constitute the mammalian

allocortex The allocortex or heterogenetic cortex, and neocortex are the two types of cerebral cortex in the brain. The allocortex is the much smaller area of cortex taking up just 10 %, the neocortex takes up the remaining 90 %. It is characterized by havi ...

or the heterogenetic cortex. The distinction for what is called

or isocortex, which comprises most of the human brain (about 90%), is made from the number of cellular layers that the structure comprises. Neocortical tissue comprises six distinct cell layers, not seen in paleocortical tissues either in adult or developing stage. In humans the paleocortex is exemplified in the olfactory cortex. For most vertebrates, the

olfactory bulb The olfactory bulb (Latin: ''bulbus olfactorius'') is a neural structure of the vertebrate forebrain involved in olfaction, the sense of smell. It sends olfactory information to be further processed in the amygdala, the orbitofrontal cortex (O ...

is the main feature of the paleocortex, even though the division is virtually unused outside of a mammalian context.

Locations

Paleocortex is present in the

parahippocampal gyrus The parahippocampal gyrus (or hippocampal gyrus') is a grey matter cortical region of the brain that surrounds the hippocampus and is part of the limbic system. The region plays an important role in memory encoding and retrieval. It has been inv ...

, accessory olfactory bulb,

olfactory tubercle The olfactory tubercle (OT), also known as the tuberculum olfactorium, is a multi-sensory processing center that is contained within the olfactory cortex and ventral striatum and plays a role in reward cognition. The OT has also been shown to ...

piriform cortex The piriform cortex, or pyriform cortex, is a region in the brain, part of the rhinencephalon situated in the cerebrum. The function of the piriform cortex relates to the sense of smell. Structure The piriform cortex is part of the rhinencepha ...

periamygdalar area Periamygdaloid cortex (or periamygdalar area) is a portion of the rhinencephalon consisting of paleocortex. It is a cortical-like nucleus of the amygdaloid complex. Though considered a nucleus, the periamygdalar area is more commonly associated wit ...

, anterior olfactory nucleus,

anterior perforated substance The anterior perforated substance is a part of the brain. It is bilateral. It is irregular and quadrilateral. It lies in front of the optic tract and behind the olfactory trigone. Structure The anterior perforated substance is bilateral. It ...

, and prepyriform area.

Parts of the paleocortex

Olfactory bulb The olfactory bulb (Latin: ''bulbus olfactorius'') is a neural structure of the vertebrate forebrain involved in olfaction, the sense of smell. It sends olfactory information to be further processed in the amygdala, the orbitofrontal cortex (O ...

Piriform cortex The piriform cortex, or pyriform cortex, is a region in the brain, part of the rhinencephalon situated in the cerebrum. The function of the piriform cortex relates to the sense of smell. Structure The piriform cortex is part of the rhinencepha ...

* Anterior olfactory nucleus * Olfactory tract *

Anterior commissure The anterior commissure (also known as the precommissure) is a white matter tract (a bundle of axons) connecting the two temporal lobes of the cerebral hemispheres across the midline, and placed in front of the columns of the fornix. In most exist ...

* Uncus

References

Parent, A. (1996). Carpenter's human neuroanatomy (9th ed.). Philadelphia: Williams &Wilkins. {{Authority control Cerebrum Hippocampus (brain) Cerebral cortex

Locations

Parts of the paleocortex

See also

References