Anatomical terminology
3 Basic Anatomical Directions Quiz
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Anatomical Position
Anatomical Position
Our body's standard position is the "anatomical position", which always:
Stands upright
Hands facing forward
Thumb pointing away from the body
Feet slightly apart, parallel to each other
The anatomical position
Anatomical planes, directions, and axes are crucial for anatomical description to give reference points to understand.
Prone and supine
Prone and supine
Supine (opposite of prone): body lies on back, face up, prone lying on stomach, face down
Prone (opposite of supine): body faces downward
Anatomical Planes
Anatomical Planes
Anatomical planes are the imaginary planes to give reference points.
The three basic anatomical planes are the Coronal, Transverse, and Sagittal planes
Coronal/Frontal Plane
Coronal/Frontal Plane
The coronal/frontal plane divides the body in the middle into the front and back halves.
"Corona" refers to a body's part resembling a crown. It originally referred to the halo or aura of the sun or moon in a solar or lunar eclipse.
"Coronary" is originally used as an adjective for corona, now more often a scientific term.
It refers to coronary or heart arteries, a source of oxygenated blood for cardiac muscles, in the Circulatory System.
The arteries' shapes resembles a crown.
Coronary artery disease is a condition that can lead to angina and myocardial infarction, which we know as heart attack.
Transverse/Axial/Transaxial Plane
Transverse/Axial/Transaxial Plane
The transverse/axial/transaxial plane divides the body horizontally into the upper and lower part.
It's formed by the left-right axis and anteroposterior.
Sagittal Plane
Sagittal Plane
The sagittal plane divides the body symmetrically and vertically into left and right halves. It's formed by the anteroposterior and craniocaudal axis/longitudinal plane.
The Meridian/Mid-Sagittal plane sometimes describes the sagittal plane running through the middle of organisms.
In "Sagittal", it comes from the Latin word "sagitta", meaning "arrow", referring to the symmetrical shape of an arrow.
It is also used for the Sagittarius constellation, also referred as Archer, the 9th house of the zodiac, and corresponds between November 23th and Decembre 24th.
Anatomical Directions/Regional Directional
Anatomical Directions/Regional Directional
Regional directional/Anatomical directions/Anatomical positions are the imaginary point used to give reference points.
Basic Anatomical Directions Quiz
Medial and Lateral
Medial and Lateral
Lateral: side of something, as in "left lateral" and "right lateral".
Medial: how close something is to the middle than other structures. For instance, our arms are lateral to the torso.
The words "right" and "left" are sometime used.
"Medial" is derived from Latin "medius", which means "middle".
Proximal and Distal
Proximal and Distal
Proximal: how close it's from a point
Distal: how far it's from a point
Anterior and Posterior
Anterior and Posterior
Anterior/Ventral: what's at the front
Posterior/Dorsal: back of something
E.g. a dog's eyes are posterior to its nose/the nose is anterior to his eyes, with its tail as its most posterior part.
E.g. Toes are anterior to heels and heel is posterior to toes
Superior and Inferior
Superior and Inferior
Superior: what's above, like the head
Inferior: what's below, like the feet
E.g. The chest is inferior to the head and the head is superior to the chest.
Central and Peripheral
Central and Peripheral
Peripheral: to something further away from the center of something.
E.g. the arm is peripheral to the body
Central: to something to the center.
E.g. the great vessels centrally throught body
Superficial and Deep.
Superficial and Deep.
Deep: how far something is from the surface of an organism.
E.g. the abdomen's external oblique muscle is deep to the skin
It's one of the few terms from English, not Latin or Greek.
Superficial: to how close something is from the surface.
E.g. The epidermis is superficial to the hypodermis, iIn the Integumentary System
Dorsal and Ventral
Dorsal and Ventral
Dorsal refers to the upper side or to the back of an organism.
E.g. the skull's dorsal would be the top
Ventral (derived from the Latin word venter, meaning "belly") refers to the frontal/lower side.
E.g. a fish's pectoral fins are dorsal to the anal fin
Cranial and Caudal
Cranial and Caudal
Cranial (derived from the Greek word means "belly") or cephalic (from Greek word meaning "head"): distance something is from a head.
Caudal (derived from the Latin word cauda meaning "tail"): how close something is tailing end of an organism.
E.g. Eyes are caudal to the nose.
Anatomical Axes
Anatomical Axes
Anatomical axes are straight imaginary lines used to give reference points.
Round organisms or not symmetrical may have different axes, like the cephalocaudal axis or dorsoventral axis.
Basic Anatomical Axes Quiz
Horizontal/Mediolateral axis is formed by the transverse + cornoal planes' intersection
Vertical/Longitudinal axis is formed by the cornoal + sagittal planes' intersection.
Sagittal/Anteroposterior axis is formed by the transverse + sagittal planes' intersection.
Body parts
Body parts
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