Exner identified the superficial tangential fibers of the molecular layer of the cerebral cortex, known eponymically as “Exner’s plexus”.

Exner’s book of 1881 on cortical localization contained maps based on the clinical manifestations of cerebral lesions…. Exner was among those postulating the existence of precise functional ‘centers’ with a minute parcellation of the cortex, based on the belief that the site of a lesion producing a specific functional disturbance indicated the location of that function. He is best known for siting his ‘writing center’ in the posterior part of the second frontal convolution.” (Clarke and Dewhurst).