Hello all this is Dr. Alsup and in this dissection video we are going to focus
on the ventricles. Recall that ventricles are spaces emphasis on space or those cavities in the
brain where cerebral spinal fluid or CSF is not only going to be produced but it will also flow.
Okay, in this image we are looking at a lateral view of a ventricular model which is basically
solidifying areas which are actually spaces in the brain. So think if fluid was entered into the
ventricular system allowed to solidify and the surrounding brain tissue was removed
to give us this view or this model. So just to say this one more time this model is really showing
the size and shape of the hollow spaces or the ventricles and their connections within the brain.
Let's start with the most superior and these are the paired lateral ventricles which you can really
think of as the first and second ventricles even though you never hear it that way you
always just hear the lateral ventricles. And you can see it is a very distinctly shaped. It's by
far the largest of the ventricles. And you can really only see the right lateral ventricle here.
But the left would be parallel and right next to it you can see a little bit of it right here.
These will drain via the interventricular foramina, so here is one of the interventricular foramina
right here, and this will connect the lateral ventricle to the third ventricle which is
this region right here. And the third ventricle is going to be unpaired
and it is in the midline and it has this pretty distinct kind of odd shape here.
The third ventricle will drain through the cerebral aqueduct which is a little bit longer
definitely in comparison to the interventricular foramen.
And the cerebral aqueduct will connect the third and the fourth ventricles.
And the fourth ventricle will be continuous with the central canal which is going to be
located within the spinal cord. These pink portions kind of threw out this model you can see a little
bit there I can see a little bit of it here in the background these are supposed to represent
the choroid plexuses which are located in the walls of the ventricles and this is where CSF
is produced so that's what the the pink is supposed to be representing on this model.
Now let's look at an actual brain so not a model. This is a hemisected brain
meaning we are looking at the left half of the brain in this specific case.
And this allows a better view of the more internal portions of the brain.
And I'm about to point out the general areas of where the ventricles would be.
For recall especially with the third and fourth ventricles these are in the midline and you would
really need the other half of the brain to complete the walls of the ventricular space.
The lateral ventricles are located within the cerebral hemisphere so if I were to kind of
poke through this general region into the cerebral hemisphere you would be looking into the space
that makes up the lateral ventricles. So recall that's going to be associated with the cerebrum.
The third ventricle is located between the halves of the diencephalon so in this
general region right here you would have the third ventricle.
And the fourth ventricle lies between the brain stem and the cerebellum.
Ao this is going to be the general region for the fourth ventricle. All right so those
are the ventricles of the brain and some of the ways you can identify or at least conceptualize
in the general location of where they are located during life. That is all for this session and as
always please reach out with any questions and thank you for your time and attention.