Cranium Flashcards

Explore the cranium's skeletal divisions, cranial vault, skull base, sutures, foramina, bone structure, development, and clinical landmarks.

Card 1 of 30Question

What is the cranium?

The bony framework of the head that encloses the brain and supports the facial structures.

In This Section

1. What is the cranium?

The bony framework of the head that encloses the brain and supports the facial structures.

2. What are the two major skeletal divisions of the cranium?

The neurocranium and viscerocranium.

3. How many bones typically form the adult cranium, including the facial skeleton?

Twenty-two bones, excluding the auditory ossicles.

4. What is the neurocranium?

The portion of the cranium that forms the protective bony enclosure around the brain.

5. Which eight bones form the neurocranium?

The frontal, occipital, sphenoid, ethmoid, two parietal, and two temporal bones.

6. What is the viscerocranium?

The facial skeleton, consisting of fourteen bones that form the framework of the face.

7. Which bones form the viscerocranium?

The paired maxillae, zygomatic, nasal, lacrimal, palatine, and inferior nasal conchal bones, plus the mandible and vomer.

8. What is the calvaria?

The dome-shaped cranial vault forming the superior covering of the brain.

9. What are the three principal layers of the cranial vault bones?

The outer table of compact bone, diploe, and inner table of compact bone.

10. What is diploe?

The spongy cancellous bone between the inner and outer compact tables of the cranial vault.

11. What is the cranial base?

The inferior portion of the neurocranium that supports the brain and contains numerous neurovascular openings.

12. What are the three cranial fossae?

The anterior, middle, and posterior cranial fossae.

13. Which cerebral lobes occupy the anterior cranial fossa?

The frontal lobes.

14. Which cerebral lobes occupy the lateral portions of the middle cranial fossa?

The temporal lobes.

15. Which major brain structures occupy the posterior cranial fossa?

The cerebellum, pons, and medulla oblongata.

16. What type of joints connect most bones of the cranium?

Fibrous joints called sutures.

17. Which suture joins the frontal bone to the parietal bones?

The coronal suture.

18. Which suture joins the two parietal bones?

The sagittal suture.

19. Which suture joins the parietal bones to the occipital bone?

The lambdoid suture.

20. What is the bregma?

The junction of the coronal and sagittal sutures.

21. What is the lambda?

The junction of the sagittal and lambdoid sutures.

22. What is the pterion?

The region where the frontal, parietal, temporal, and sphenoid bones meet.

23. What is the asterion?

The junction of the parietal, occipital, and temporal bones near the mastoid region.

24. What are fontanelles?

Membranous gaps between developing cranial bones in infants that permit skull growth and molding.

25. Which fontanelle is located at the junction of the coronal and sagittal sutures?

The anterior fontanelle.

26. How do the cranial vault and much of the cranial base differ in ossification?

The vault develops mainly by intramembranous ossification, while much of the base develops by endochondral ossification.

27. Which major structures pass through the foramen magnum?

The medulla-spinal cord junction, vertebral arteries, spinal arteries, and spinal roots of the accessory nerve.

28. Which cranial bone contains the hypophyseal fossa for the pituitary gland?

The sphenoid bone.

29. Which intracranial hemorrhage is classically associated with a fracture near the pterion?

An epidural hematoma caused by injury to the middle meningeal artery.

30. What is craniosynostosis?

Premature fusion of one or more cranial sutures, potentially producing abnormal skull shape and restricted growth.