RESUMO
INTRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT: There is a correlation between the higher brain functions and the degree of development of the associated cortices, but their efficiency depends on the patterns of cytoarchitectural organisation. Specialised areas can be distinguished in the neocortex and in the thalamus. Portions of the pars opercularis and triangularis of the inferior frontal gyrus (Broca's area) together with the posterior temporal region (Wernicke's area) are essential for the production and understanding of human speech, these being more developed in the left hemisphere of humans. The frontal lobe in front of Brodmann's areas numbers 6 and 8 represents a late phylogenetic acquisition, which is only developed in primates and in humans, that acts to sustain highly discriminating activities linked to the planning, execution and control of tasks that require the selection of programmes and flexibility for them to be applied. In its anterolateral sector, the temporal lobe has areas that are only shared with primates (such as area 20) or which are exclusive to humans (area 38), and which are important when it comes to assessing the vital significance of intellectually captured events. CONCLUSIONS: The three fundamental features of the human cerebral cortex are considerable folding, stratification and pillarisation, and its scant thickness. The rationale behind this work was to present the complex and sophisticated biological substrate for the development of speech and language in human beings and the connections within the temporal lobe and outside them, as well as the bi-hemispheric competence needed to enable the higher tutoring processes.