ABSTRACT
Over a hundred years on from Korbinian Brodmann's great work, neuroscience may finally be getting a step closer to reconciling the localisation versus holistic positions regarding the functions of the cerebral cortex. Brodmann was a German doctor who divided the human cerebrum into forty-three areas based on regional differences in the distribution, shape and size of its neurons – a mapping system still used by researchers to guide them around the terrain of the cerebral cortex. He described the theory of "psychic centres" as naive since he believed higher mental functions were more likely to be neural processes that extended over the whole cortical surface and possibly involve subcortical regions as well. Brodmann described the different cytoarchitectonic structure of the precentral and postcentral gyri in the human cerebral cortex. Broadmann shows that the human brain has thicker cortical layers along with increased cell size and greater density of neurons.
