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The skull can be divided into two portions: neural and facial. The neural skull is made up of 6 bones: frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital, sphenoid and ethmoid. The facial skull comprises 8 different bones. In this chapter, they will be briefly described. Synthetic descriptions of sutures between them and of the skull base foramina will follow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The internal carotid artery supplies the anterior part of the brain and the eye, and sends branches to the forehead and nose. According to the latest classifications, it can be divided intoseven segments: cervical, petrous, lacerum, cavernous, clinoid, ophthalmic, and communicating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this chapter, some of the main CNS structures are grouped together with particular respect to their functional activity. The classification is somewhat arbitrary and covers only a practical aspect: to allow easy identification of a possible lesion location based on symptoms and signs. The main systems are considered on the following pages, while other systems are dealt with together with their cranial nerves. Several other complex cerebral functions not routinely visible through neuroradiological studies are not considered in this chapter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The olfactory epithelium is located in the mucosa of the superior nasal concha, and takes up about 2.5 cm2. Inside the olfactory mucosa, olfactory cells are located. They are the peripheral receptors that transmit pulses to the olfactory neurons. The latter are about 6,000,000 bipolar cells (Schulze's cells) distributed inside the epithelium. Their dendrites group together in several filaments which constitute the true olfactory nerves; they cross the cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone and reach the olfactory bulb. The olfactory bulb is a gray matter mass, an evagination of the telencephalon, located between the gyrus rectus and the cribriform plate, containing neurons termed "mitral cells". Their dendrites continue in the olfactory tract, which terminates with the olfactory trigone and tuberculum, in correspondence with the anterior perforated substance. Here, a group of dendrites cross the midline through the anterior commissure and join the contralateral fibers. Before ending, two striae diverge: the lateral olfactory stria, connected with the lateral olfactory nucleus and directed to the amygdaloid body, and the medial olfactory stria, directed to the septal nuclei and hypothamalus. Cortical projections of the olfactory function are identified mostly in the prepiriform and entorhinal cortex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brainstem and cerebellum are the contents of the posterior fossa, delimited superiorly by the tentorium cerebelli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cross-sectional anatomy of the telencephalon is shown on the following pages. As in almost all other sections of this book, MRI cuts are taken following conventional planes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]