Anatomical Terminology Flashcards
What are the three planes used to separate the body?
There are three planes commonly used; sagittal, coronal and transverse.
Sagittal plane – a vertical line which divides the body into a left section and a right section.
Coronal plane – a vertical line which divides the body into a front (anterior) section and back (posterior) section.
Transverse plane – a horizontal line which divides the body into an upper (superior) section and a lower (inferior) section.
Which types of movement refer to the sagittal plane?
Define the two types in terms of changes in angles between two body parts.
Flexion refers to a movement that decreases the angle between two body parts. Flexion at the elbow is decreasing the angle between the ulna and the humerus. When the knee flexes, the ankle moves closer to the buttock, and the angle between the femur and tibia gets smaller.
Extension refers to a movement that increases the angle between two body parts. Extension at the elbow is increasing the angle between the ulna and the humerus. Extension of the knee straightens the lower limb.
What do the terms abduction and adduction describe movement in relation to?
Which is moving away and which moving towards?
Is the point of reference in relation to the movement of the body part the same for the hands and feet?
Abduction and adduction are two terms that are used to describe movements towards or away from the midline of the body.
Abduction is a movement away from the midline – just as abducting someone is to take them away. For example, abduction of the shoulder raises the arms out to the sides of the body.
Adduction is a movement towards the midline.
Adduction of the hip squeezes the legs together.
In fingers and toes, the midline used is not the midline of the body, but of the hand and foot respectively. Therefore, abducting the fingers spreads them out.
What do you call a rotation around the long axis of a limb?
Which is the rotation towards and away from the midline called?
Medial and lateral rotation describe movement of the limbs around their long axis:
Medial rotation is a rotational movement towards the midline. It is sometimes referred to as internal rotation. To understand this, we have two scenarios to imagine. Firstly, with a straight leg, rotate it to point the toes inward. This is medial rotation of the hip. Secondly, imagine you are carrying a tea tray in front of you, with elbow at 90 degrees. Now rotate the arm, bringing your hand towards your opposite hip (elbow still at 90 degrees). This is internal rotation of the shoulder.
Lateral rotation is a rotating movement away from the midline. This is in the opposite direction to the movements described above.
What do you call movement in the superior and inferior direction?
Elevation refers to movement in a superior direction (e.g. shoulder shrug), depression refers to movement in an inferior direction.
What is supination and pronation?
This is easily confused with medial and lateral rotation, but the difference is subtle. With your hand resting on a table in front of you, and keeping your shoulder and elbow still, turn your hand onto its back, palm up. This is the supine position, and so this movement issupination.
Again, keeping the elbow and shoulder still, flip your hand onto its front, palm down. This is the prone position, and so this movement is namedpronation.
These terms also apply to the whole body – when lying flat on the back, the body is supine. When lying flat on the front, the body is prone.
What is dorsiflexion?
Dorsiflexion refers to flexion at the ankle, so that the foot points more superiorly. Dorsiflexion of the hand is a confusing term, and so is rarely used. The dorsum of the hand is the posterior surface, and so movement in that direction is extension. Therefore we can say that dorsiflexion of the wrist is the same as extension.
What is plantarflexion?
Plantarflexion refers extension at the ankle, so that the foot points inferiorly. Similarly there is a term for the hand, which is palmarflexion.
What is inversion?
Inversion involves the movement of the sole towards the median plane – so that the sole faces in a medial direction.
What is Eversion?
Eversion involves the movement of the sole away from the median plane – so that the sole faces in a lateral direction.
What movements brings the thumb and little finger together and apart?
A pair of movements that are limited to humans and some great apes, these terms apply to the additional movements that the hand and thumb can perform in these species.
Opposition brings the thumb and little finger together.
Reposition is a movement that moves the thumb and the little finger away from each other, effectively reversing opposition.
What is circumduction ?
Circumduction can be defined as a conical movement of a limb extending from the joint at which the movement is controlled.
It is sometimes talked about as a circular motion, but is more accurately conical due to the ‘cone’ formed by the moving limb.
What words refers to beiñg towards the midline in relation to the sagittal plane? Which means away from?
Imagine a line in the sagittal plane, splitting the right and left halves evenly. This is the midline. Medial means towards the midline, lateral means away from the midline.
Examples:
The eye is lateral to the nose.
The nose is medial to the ears.
The brachial artery lies medial to the biceps tendon.
What word refers to the front and which to the back?
Anterior refers to the ‘front’, and posterior refers to the ‘back’. Putting this in context, the heart is posterior to the sternum because it lies behind it. Equally, the sternum is anterior to the heart because it lies in front of it.
Examples
Pectoralis major lies anterior to pectoralis minor.
The triceps are posterior to biceps brachii.
The patella is located anteriorly in the lower limb.
Which term means higher on the vertical axis and which means lower?
Why is this a problematic definition for the limbs?
These terms refer to the vertical axis. Superior means ‘higher’, inferior means ‘lower’. The head is superior to the neck; the umbilicus is inferior to the sternum.
Here we run into a small complication, and limbs are very mobile, and what is superior in one position is inferior in another. Therefore, in addition to the superior and inferior, we need another descriptive pair of terms:
Examples
The nose is superior to the mouth.
The lungs are superior to the liver.
The appendix is (usually) inferior to the transverse colon.
