Fourth ventricle at a glance
- What it is
- The fourth ventricle is a diamond-shaped, CSF-filled cavity of the hindbrain.
- Location
- It lies between the pons and upper medulla in front and the cerebellum behind, continuous above with the cerebral aqueduct and below with the central canal.
- Function
- It circulates CSF and delivers it into the subarachnoid space through the median aperture (foramen of Magendie) and two lateral apertures (foramina of Luschka).
- Body system
- Nervous · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA78469 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Floor is the rhomboid fossa.
- Contains choroid plexus in its roof.
Clinical relevance
Blockage of its outlets causes obstructive hydrocephalus.
Structures next to the fourth ventricle
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Anterior inferior cerebellar artery · cardiovascular
- Pons · nervous
- External ear · eye & ear
- Cerebellum · nervous
- Inferior colliculus · nervous
- Medulla oblongata · nervous
- Superior cerebellar artery · cardiovascular
- Basilar artery · cardiovascular
- Brachium of inferior colliculus · nervous
- Occipital bone · skeletal
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Fourth ventricle (FMA78469). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §12.1 Basic Structure and Function of the Nervous System. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.