Veterinary Gross Anatomy-II

Lateral ventricle

LATERAL VENTRICLES

• They are right and left and each is an irregular cavity in the interior of each cerebral hemisphere communicating with each other and with the third ventricle by the foramen of Munro. Each ventricle has three parts, body and two cornua or horns.
• The body extends backwards to the splenium and communicates with the third ventricle through the interventricular foramen of Munro situated below the fornix and between it and the thalamus. The anterior cornua is in front and it communicates with the cavity of the olfactory bulb. The posterior cornua curves downward and forward into piriform lobe. Each lateral ventricle has a roof, floor and a medial wall. The roof is formed by the corpus callosum and the medial wall is by the posterior part of the septum lucidum. The floor is formed by the two chief nuclei-caudate nucleus in front and the hippocampus behind and the body of the fornix medially and in front.
• The caudate nucleus is a pear shaped body, the long axis of which is directed upward backward and outward. Hippocampus is white on its ventricular face, curves outward downward and then forward to join the piriform lobe. These two bodies are separated by an oblique groove that is occupied by the choroid plexus of the lateral ventricle. On drawing the chorioid plexus aside, along the margin of the caudate nucleus, a narrow band of the white mater called the stria terminalis (taenia semicircularis) is seen.