The Cortical Foundation

The Cortical Foundation

The Cortical Foundation is dedicated to providing services to educate, advocate, support, and improve awareness of cortical malformations.

CORTICAL MALFORMATIONS are rare developmental abnormalities affecting the surface layer, or cerebral cortex, of the brain.

The following disorders are classified as cortical malformations.

Types of Malformations

Focal cortical dysplasia encompasses a wide range of localized malformations ranging from mild forms of cortical disruption without cell abnormalities to more severe forms with enlarged “balloon” cells and dysplastic neurons.

Hemimegalencephaly is an abnormal enlargement of one, or part of a, cerebral hemisphere.

Heterotopia are nodules or clumps of misplaced neurons that did not move to the correct location in the brain during early development. This includes periventricular nodular heterotopia (PNH), periventricular laminar heterotopia (PLH), ribbon-like heterotopia, and subcortical heterotopia (SCH).

Lissencephaly encompasses a continuous spectrum of malformations from complete agyria (no gyri) to variable degrees of agyria and pachygyria (broad gyri), to subcortical band heterotopia.

Megalencephaly is a rare condition where the brain develops abnormally large.

Microcephaly is a neurodevelopmental disorder in which the circumference of the head is more than two standard deviations smaller than average for the person’s age and sex.

Polymicrogyria is a developmental malformation of the brain characterized by an excessive number of unusually small folds in the cerebral cortex.

Schizencephaly is a developmental malformation characterized by abnormal slits or clefts in the cerebral hemispheres of the brain.

Tuberous sclerosis is a genetic disorder that affect the skin, brain/nervous system, kidneys, and heart, and cause tumors to grow. The diseases are named after a tuber- or root-shaped growth in the brain.