Tentorium cerebelli at a glance
- What it is
- The tentorium cerebelli is a fold of dura mater that separates the cerebellum from the occipital lobes of the cerebrum.
- Location
- It stretches across the posterior cranial fossa, attached to the occipital bone, petrous ridges and clinoid processes, with the free edge forming the tentorial notch.
- Function
- It supports the occipital lobes and divides the cranial cavity into supratentorial and infratentorial compartments.
- Body system
- Nervous · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA83966 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Contains the straight, transverse and superior petrosal venous sinuses at attachments.
- Midbrain passes through the tentorial notch.
Clinical relevance
Raised supratentorial pressure can cause uncal herniation through the tentorial notch.
Structures next to the tentorium cerebelli
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Posterior inferior cerebellar artery · cardiovascular
- Inferior temporal gyrus · nervous
- Parahippocampal gyrus · nervous
- Fusiform gyrus · nervous
- Lateral geniculate body · nervous
- Occipital bone · skeletal
- Medial geniculate body · nervous
- Cerebellum · nervous
- Hippocampus · nervous
- Brachium of inferior colliculus · nervous
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Tentorium cerebelli (FMA83966). 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.
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.