ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the general organization and operation of the human brain. The primary aim is to establish the biological background necessary to tackle the material on the neural substrates of language that is covered in Chapters 3–17. There are three main parts. The first section focuses on the anatomical, physiological, and representational properties of neurons. The second section describes several subcortical structures-specifically, the brainstem and thalamus, the hippocampus and amygdala, and the basal ganglia and cerebellum. Finally, the third section concentrates on the architecture of the cerebral cortex, which is the wrinkled outer mantle of the brain that underlies our most intricate mental processes.
