Anatomical terms of location are an essential part of understanding and using anatomical terminology. They help to avoid any ambiguity that may occur when describing the different locations of structures. It is important to accurately describe the position of structures relative to one another in order to have a better understanding of their anatomy.
Cephalic and Caudal refers to the head and tail (inferior) end of the embryo respectively. However, instead of using the term cephalic, the word cranial is commonly used when describing the relative location of one structure to another. For example, the vitelline duct lies caudally to the primitive brain, and the foregut is cranial to the midgut.
Ventral and Dorsal refer to the anterior (front) and posterior (back) aspects of the embryo respectively. Examples include the gut tube lying ventrally to the spinal cord, and the spinal cord being dorsal to the developing trachea.
Rostral and Caudal are only used when describing structures within the central nervous system, above the level of the spinal cord such as the brainstem, cerebrum and cerebellum. Rostral is derived from the Latin word rostrum which means towards the nose or beak. In this context, rostral refers to the anterior (front) aspect of the head while caudal refers to the posterior (back) aspect of the head. Examples include the forebrain being rostral to the midbrain, and the hindbrain being caudal to the midbrain.
Ventral and Dorsal in the context of the central nervous system have slightly different meanings. Ventral refers to the inferior region of the brain while dorsal refers to the superior region towards the scalp.
