The cerebral cortex is the outermost layer of the cerebrum, which consists of the entirety of the brain except for the part which constitutes 10% in the back-bottom of your head, above the back of your neck, called the cerebellum.

The folds are there to maximise the total surface area and allow it to fit inside your skull without too great a loss in its size.

Any damage to the cerebral cortex would result in a decrease in the brain's ability to perform high level processes.  The greater the damage then the greater to loss of brain performance.  Damage to different areas of the cerebral cortex can result in the impairment of different high level processes.

The cerebral cortex integrates higher mental functions, visceral functions, general movement, perception, and behavioral reactions. Modern brain studies have described more than 200 areas on the basis of differences in myelinated fiber patterns and has 47 seperate funtion areas with different cell designs.

There are at least 20 billion neurons in the human cerebral cortex. They average one thousand synapses per neuron.

The cerebral cortex is responsible for higher thinking processes, memory, deliberate movement, and sensation. The cerebellum is the more primitive brain, which is responsible for muscle memory and translation of signals from the cerebrum into actual, fluid, and automatic movements.