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corpus callosum

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corpus callosum

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Also known as callosal commissure

brain part

Key facts

Pronunciation
/ ˈ k ɔːr p ə s k ə ˈ l oʊ s ə m /
Part of
Human brain
Location
Between the two brain hemispheres
Parts
Genu, rostrum, trunk, splenium
Function
Facilitating communication between the two brain hemispheres , allowing them to share information and coordinate functions like movement, sensory processing, and cognitive tasks
Latin
corpus callosum
Mesh
D003337
Neurolex id
birnlex_1087
Ta98
A14.1.09.241

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

26,528 papers

via PubMed

~15 min read

Encyclopedic overview

The corpus callosum (Latin for "tough body"), also callosal commissure, is a wide, thick nerve tract, consisting of a flat bundle of commissural fibers, beneath the cerebral cortex in the brain. The corpus callosum is only found in placental mammals. It spans part of the longitudinal fissure, connecting the left and right cerebral hemispheres, enabling communication between them. It is the largest white matter structure in the human brain, about 10 cm (3.9 in) in length and consisting of 200–300 million axonal projections.

A number of separate nerve tracts, classed as subregions of the corpus callosum, connect different parts of the hemispheres. The main ones are known as the genu, the rostrum, the trunk or body, and the splenium.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “corpus callosum” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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