What purpose do the fissures in the brain serve?

Question

That is, why is the brain shaped the way it is, with all the "wiggles" in it. And i'm not referring to certain fissures, just all of them in general. Why not just a solid, smooth surfaced mass of brain matter? Sources please.

In response to the two answers already, without sources i can't accept that. There aren't just neurons on the surface of the brain, such a suggestion is silly. In fact there would be more neurons in the head if the crevaces were filled.

Answer 1

The key to the structure of the brain is not necessarily to have more neurons but rather more surface area. A key principle in biology and chemistry is that the larger the surface area over which a reaction takes place, the faster the rate of the reaction. A folded brain is like a crumpled newspaper, you get the benefits of all the surface area of the paper while reducing the overall size of the paper as a whole. In the brain, a larger surface area condensed into a relatively small mass allows for many more neural synapses between different parts of the brain. Also, a larger surface area allows more neurons to be bathed directly in CSF (cerebral spinal fluid), allowing faster removal of wastes and transfer of nutrients to the brain. It is also notable that more intricate folding is one characteristic that differentiates "higher" cognitive species from more primitive species, ie, an ape has more cortical folding than a rat.

Answer 2

Fissures Of The Brain

Answer 3

The wiggles you describe give the brain more surface area for information to be contained.
This is the same concept as why the lungs are filled with alveoli, grape-like structures where the exchange of oxygen occurs.
I understand your logic here, but it simply is not accurate.

Answer 4

They allow for the better formation of memories by increasing surface area.

Answer 5

because in that way you have more surfface area in less space, in other case you´ll need a huge head to fit your brain