[Music] before we take a look at the meaning of specific anatomical terms I suppose the first question we should answer is why do we use anatomical terms well anatomical terms exist so that we can precisely describe the location of features on a body let's Imagine The Following scenar Mario here is a female she's upset and it's not just because she's naked on YouTube it's mostly because she's just discovered a rather large pimple on her stomach but where exactly on her stomach is it statements like there's something on my stomach are so vague and non-specific that they don't really mean anything to an anatomist is the pimple here or here or here but if we use correct anatomical terminology it's possible to precisely identify the location of a pimple or any other body feature so that anyone can precisely locate it for example if we're told that her pimple is 2 cm Superior to her navl or belly button then its location becomes obvious to everybody which is probably not what this female wants before we move on from this picture take a good look at how the woman's body is positioned in this drawing note how she's standing upright arms at sides Palms facing forwards and feet together we call this the anatomical position and it's the international standard position in which structures of the human body are described whenever you use anatomical terms always apply them to a person standing in the anatomical position never apply them to say a person sitting on the ground or upside down or bent over sick after a heavy night out okay let's look at some anatomical terms the first terms that we're going to Define are the terms left and right now I know what some of you are thinking didn't we learn this in preschool well even though you might think that the definitions of left and right are straightforward many students actually use these terms incorrectly you see when we use the term terms left and right we're referring to the left and right sides of the person standing in the anatomical position which in this case is the woman in this drawing we are not referring to the left and right sides of the Observer which in this case would be you looking at this drawing consequently for the woman in this picture this is her left side and this is her right side so if you are asked in a test to describe the position of say point a relative to the umbilicus or belly button the correct answer would be point a is to the left of the umbilicus okay next are the anatomical terms anterior and posterior anterior means front of the body whilst posterior means back of the body in humans you can also use the term ventril for anterior and dorsal for posterior here are two examples of how you might use the terms anterior and posterior in a sentence example one the naval or belly button is on the anterior or ventral surface of the body example two the heel is posterior or dorsal to the [Music] toes next are the terms Superior and inferior Superior means above or towards the head inferior means below or towards the feet for example on this drawing point a is superior to point B however Point C is inferior to point B next are two anatomical terms that you probably haven't heard before they are proximal and distal these terms are only used to describe the location of two points on the same limb which could be either an arm or a leg proximal means closer to where the arm or leg inserts into the body distal means further away from where the arm or leg inserts into the body on this arm and leg red arrows indicate proximal whilst green arrows indicate distal we can use the terms proximal and distal in the following ways on the leg the knee is proximal to the ankle because the knee is closer to where the leg inserts into the body but on the arm the wrist is distal to the Elbow because the wrist is further away from where the arm inserts into the body remember only use the terms proximal and distal when referring to two points on the same limb if a point is no longer on a limb like point a in this drawing then you can't use the term proximal anymore instead point a would be superior to point B next are the terms medial and lateral medial means any point closer to the midline of the body the midline is an imaginary line that cuts the body in half vertically lateral means any point away from the midline for example in this drawing point a on the leg is medial to point B Because point a is closer to the midline alternatively you could say that point B is lateral to point a because point B is further away from the midline another example would be your thumb being lateral to your little finger on your hand okay now that you've mastered the basics try to answer the following question using correct anatomical terminology can you describe the position of the nose relative to the eyes I'll give you 5 Seconds to work it [Music] out hopefully you answered the nose is medial inferior and anterior to the eyes so far all of the anatomical terms that we've described are what we call directional terms that is they're terms that describe the position of One external structure relative to another but what happens if we want to observe the relative locations and Arrangements of internal structures and organs like for example the heart heart lungs and brain well to do this we need to cut the body into slices called sections or planes the four anatomical planes are sagittal frontal transverse and oblique A sagittal plane is a lengthwise or vertical cut that divides the body into left and right portions if the cut passes through the midline of the body then we call this a mid sagittal plane however if the cut doesn't exactly pass through the midline we call this a parasagittal plane next is the frontal plane this plane divides a body into anterior and posterior portions for example a frontal section of the head would divide it into the face part and the back of the head part next we have the trans plane this is a horizontal cut that divides the body into Superior and inferior portions finally there is an oblique plane which passes through the body at you guessed it an oblique angle the importance of understanding planes becomes obvious when you look at these three drawings of the brain cut in sagittal frontal and transverse section note how different each brain section appears and how some features like for example the pwns are easy to see in one section but difficult to observe in others thanks for watching subscribe to my YouTube channel and stay tuned for more human biology explained videos [Music]