Some vocabulary: Coronal, Sagittal & Axial

There are some complicated concepts when you're reading about the brain. But sometimes the simplest things stand in your way.

For example, coronal and sagittal and axial just confused me. I kept forgetting which was which and what I had changed when I went from one to the other. Disorienting really.

So I looked them up and now I understand why I found it confusing. There are two reasons really.

First the definition of sagittal in the Houghton-Mifflin Medical Dictionary is

1. Of or relating to the suture uniting the two parietal bones of the skull.

2. Of or relating to the sagittal plane.

Did anyone find that helpful. Well that would make one of us.

Secondly, the words weren't really describing a characteristic of the thing I was looking at. Instead the words were orienting me in space. These little words were reaching out from the computer screen, picking me up and telling me where to go stand or float or lie down. Depending.

No more mystery.

Coronal: You're looking from the front or the back.



Sagittal: You're looking from the right side or the left side.



Axial: You're looking from above or below

We thought you'd like to know.