Piriform cortex

In anatomy, the piriform cortex, or pyriform cortex is a region in the brain. The function of the piriform cortex relates to the sense of smell. Sometimes called the olfactory cortex or olfactory lobe, piriform cortical regions are present in the brains of amphibians, reptiles and mammals.

Among taxonomic groupings of mammals, the piriform cortex and the olfactory bulb become proportionally smaller in the brains of phylogenically younger species. The piriform cortex occupies a greater proportion of the brains of insectivores than in primates.

The piriform cortex continues to occupy a consistent albeit small and declining proportion of the increasingly large telencephalon in the most recent primate species while the volume of the olfactory bulb becomes less in proportion.