Views
Gross
Now let's return to the medial view of the
right side of the cerebellum (Step #1 above). I have
labeled three parts of the cerebellum in Step #1
as A, B, and C. Now imagine if you
pulled A towards the midbrain (inferior and superior
colliculi) and C towards the spinal cord and rotated
the dorsal surface of the cerebellum towards you. JUST
STRETCH THE DARN THING OUT AND ROTATE IT ! You have
flattened the cerebellum and are now viewing it from its
dorsal surface. This is seen in Step #2 above. A
schematized drawing of the stretched, flattened dorsal view
of the RIGHT cerebellar hemisphere is shown in
Step # 3. Point A is most rostral, point
C is most caudal and point B is in the middle.
A lateral most point D is now visible because of the
rotation of the cerebellum to reveal its lateral border
(Steps #2 and #3). Note that point D is not
visible in Step #1 because it is too far lateral and when
point C is viewed from a dorsal angle, as in Steps #2
and #3, the flocculonodular lobe becomes apparent. Finally,
if you stretch and flatten both halves of the
cerebellum you will end up with the commonly illustrated
schematic below.
 |