Anatomical Terms and Position

When you take anatomy and physiology, you're going to have to learn about the anatomical position as well as some basic directional terms. They may seem complicated at first, but they're super easy to learn and I'm going to give you some tips for remembering them. First, let's talk about the anatomical position. It is a standing position with the head facing forward, the arms to the side, with the palms facing forward and the fingers extended and the thumbs pointing away from the body. The feet are spaced slightly apart with the toes pointing forward. And the anatomical position is pretty simple to learn. If you just look at the picture, maybe practice it yourself a few times, you'll probably get it. But the way I remember it is I kind of picture someone walking out into a parking lot and they see someone spray painting graffiti on their car and they're just like, dude, what are you doing in my car? And that's basically the anatomical position. Now, it's really important for you to learn the anatomical position for a few different reasons. First of all, this is the standard perspective that everyone is going to use when they're referring to anatomy or the directional terms. So for example, let's say someone has a wound on the anterior side of their forearm. You don't have to guess which way their arm is twisted or which perspective someone's using. Everything is going to be from the perspective of the anatomical position. And this is the anterior side in the anatomical position, so you know that the anterior side of the forearm is always going to be the front side of their forearm. This is always going to be the left hand. This is always going to be the right. hand and so forth. Next, anatomy is definitely one of those courses where the concepts continue to build on themselves as you progress. So for example, if you learn now that superior means toward the head or above and inferior means away from the head or below, it's going to help you out when you study the heart a few chapters later and see the superior vena cava and the inferior vena cava. You're going to know that one's above and one's below. And then finally, if you are a health science major and plan to become a nurse or doctor. then you are going to be using these directional terms in the anatomical position when you document and things like that. Now here's an important tip for learning the directional terms. They are usually grouped in pairs of opposites. So if you can learn the meaning of at least one of the directional terms in each pair, you can easily remember the meaning of the opposing directional term. Let's take a look at the first pair of our directional terms. We have superior, also called cranial, which means toward the head, end of the body, or higher or above. And you can remember this easily because the head of a company is your superior at work. He or she holds a higher position than you do. So they are above you in authority. An inferior means just the opposite. This term is also sometimes called caudal. And it means away from the head or lower or under or below. An inferior product has a lower quality material compared to the other product. So let's apply these terms to the body. My eyes are superior to my nose. My nose is superior to my mouth. My mouth is superior to my neck. My neck is superior to my chest. My chest is superior to my navel. Or you could say it the other way. You could say my navel is inferior to my chest. My chest is inferior to my neck. My neck is inferior to my eyes and so on. The next pair of directional terms relate to the front or back of the body structure. Anterior, also called ventral, means front of or in the front. Your abdominal muscles are on the anterior side and the easy way to remember that, abs are anterior, abs are anterior. The word ventral literally means belly by the way. Now your posterior or dorsal is going to be just the opposite. It means the back of or behind or on the back and this is easy to remember because the posterior is another word for your rear end which is on your backside. So on an exam you might see a question asking you something like this, the sternum is blank to the spine. Well, you would know that the sternum is anterior to the spine. It is in front of the spine. Or you could say that the abdominal muscles are anterior to your intestines. Or you could say that the spine is posterior to your abdominal muscles, or that your heart is posterior to your pectoral or chest muscles, and so on. Next, we have distal and proximal, which relate to the attachment point or origin of a structure to your body, such as your arms and legs attaching to your trunk. Distal means away from or farthest from the attachment point of the structure. You literally go the distance with distal. And proximal is the opposite of distal. It means closest to or nearest the point of origin of the structure, such as your limb in relation to your trunk. And just think of the word approximately and you'll remember that it means close to the insertion point of the trunk. relative to the other object you're referring to. Now, people sometimes get confused on these two directional terms, so let me give you a couple points to help you keep in mind. First of all, it's talking primarily about the limbs, so your arms and your legs. That's what you're talking about when you're talking proximal and distal. Second of all, it's referring to the attachment. point. Okay, so the point where the arm attaches to the trunk or the leg attaches to the hip and so forth. So distal is going to be distant, proximal is going to be closest to this attachment point, and an easy way to remember this is to take your hand, make it into the shape of a gun, and remember this phrase, the pistol is distal to the upper arm. So if you remember that, it'll keep you straight. So let's go over a few examples. In the anatomical position, my phalanges or fingers would be distal. to the carpals. The carpals would be distal to my elbow. My elbow would be distal to my upper arm. Or you could say it the other way. You could say my upper arm is proximal or closest to this attachment point compared to my elbow. Or my elbow is proximal to my wrist. Or my wrist is proximal to my phalanges or fingers. The next pair of directional terms refer to the position of a structure relative to the body's surface. These are easy to remember because they are common words that we all use. superficial or external means nearest to the surface or outside of the body. In fact, if you take letters from the word superficial, you can actually spell surface. If a person is superficial, it means they only care about outside appearances. They only care about the surface of something. Deep or internal means just the opposite. It is away from the outside of the body, away from the surface. A deep wound is going to penetrate far below the surface of the skin. As you can see in this image, the liver is deep to the rib cage. The skin is superficial to the liver. The heart is also deep to the rib cage. Or the bones would be deep to the skin. Or the skin would be superficial to the muscle or superficial to the bone. Finally, we have terms that refer to a structure's location relative to the midline of the body. Medial means toward the midline of the body and that's easy to remember because medial sounds a lot like middle and that's exactly what it's talking about. A structure is toward the middle of the body and lateral means away from the body's midline. And lateral is easy to remember because a popular exercise to work out your shoulder muscles is something called lateral raises where you take the weights and you literally lift them away from the middle of the body. And the word intermediate means between two structures. So the humerus or the bone in the upper part of the arm would be lateral to the sternum, which is more toward the midline of the body, or the sternum would be medial to the humerus, or your knee would be intermediate between the ankle and the hip. Okay, so that wraps up this video on the anatomical position and the directional terms. Now, I do have a free quiz on our website. If you check the description below, you can check that out and test your knowledge on the anatomical position and these directional terms. In addition, I do hope to get out more anatomy and physiology lectures. So if you subscribe to our channel, we'll be putting together a playlist and you can check out all our lectures in that playlist over things like the muscles, the bones, and so forth. So thank you so much for watching.

The feet are spaced slightly apart with the toes pointing forward. And the anatomical position is pretty simple to learn. If you just look at the picture, maybe practice it yourself a few times, you'll probably get it. But the way I remember it is I kind of picture someone walking out into a parking lot and they see someone spray painting graffiti on their car and they're just like, dude, what are you doing in my car? And that's basically the anatomical position.

Now, it's really important for you to learn the anatomical position for a few different reasons. First of all, this is the standard perspective that everyone is going to use when they're referring to anatomy or the directional terms. So for example, let's say someone has a wound on the anterior side of their forearm. You don't have to guess which way their arm is twisted or which perspective someone's using.

Everything is going to be from the perspective of the anatomical position. And this is the anterior side in the anatomical position, so you know that the anterior side of the forearm is always going to be the front side of their forearm. This is always going to be the left hand. This is always going to be the right.

hand and so forth. Next, anatomy is definitely one of those courses where the concepts continue to build on themselves as you progress. So for example, if you learn now that superior means toward the head or above and inferior means away from the head or below, it's going to help you out when you study the heart a few chapters later and see the superior vena cava and the inferior vena cava.

You're going to know that one's above and one's below. And then finally, if you are a health science major and plan to become a nurse or doctor. then you are going to be using these directional terms in the anatomical position when you document and things like that.

Now here's an important tip for learning the directional terms. They are usually grouped in pairs of opposites. So if you can learn the meaning of at least one of the directional terms in each pair, you can easily remember the meaning of the opposing directional term. Let's take a look at the first pair of our directional terms.

We have superior, also called cranial, which means toward the head, end of the body, or higher or above. And you can remember this easily because the head of a company is your superior at work. He or she holds a higher position than you do. So they are above you in authority.

An inferior means just the opposite. This term is also sometimes called caudal. And it means away from the head or lower or under or below.

An inferior product has a lower quality material compared to the other product. So let's apply these terms to the body. My eyes are superior to my nose.

My nose is superior to my mouth. My mouth is superior to my neck. My neck is superior to my chest. My chest is superior to my navel.

Or you could say it the other way. You could say my navel is inferior to my chest. My chest is inferior to my neck. My neck is inferior to my eyes and so on. The next pair of directional terms relate to the front or back of the body structure.

Anterior, also called ventral, means front of or in the front. Your abdominal muscles are on the anterior side and the easy way to remember that, abs are anterior, abs are anterior. The word ventral literally means belly by the way. Now your posterior or dorsal is going to be just the opposite.

It means the back of or behind or on the back and this is easy to remember because the posterior is another word for your rear end which is on your backside. So on an exam you might see a question asking you something like this, the sternum is blank to the spine. Well, you would know that the sternum is anterior to the spine. It is in front of the spine. Or you could say that the abdominal muscles are anterior to your intestines.

Or you could say that the spine is posterior to your abdominal muscles, or that your heart is posterior to your pectoral or chest muscles, and so on. Next, we have distal and proximal, which relate to the attachment point or origin of a structure to your body, such as your arms and legs attaching to your trunk. Distal means away from or farthest from the attachment point of the structure. You literally go the distance with distal.

And proximal is the opposite of distal. It means closest to or nearest the point of origin of the structure, such as your limb in relation to your trunk. And just think of the word approximately and you'll remember that it means close to the insertion point of the trunk. relative to the other object you're referring to.

Now, people sometimes get confused on these two directional terms, so let me give you a couple points to help you keep in mind. First of all, it's talking primarily about the limbs, so your arms and your legs. That's what you're talking about when you're talking proximal and distal.

Second of all, it's referring to the attachment. point. Okay, so the point where the arm attaches to the trunk or the leg attaches to the hip and so forth. So distal is going to be distant, proximal is going to be closest to this attachment point, and an easy way to remember this is to take your hand, make it into the shape of a gun, and remember this phrase, the pistol is distal to the upper arm.

So if you remember that, it'll keep you straight. So let's go over a few examples. In the anatomical position, my phalanges or fingers would be distal. to the carpals. The carpals would be distal to my elbow.

My elbow would be distal to my upper arm. Or you could say it the other way. You could say my upper arm is proximal or closest to this attachment point compared to my elbow.

Or my elbow is proximal to my wrist. Or my wrist is proximal to my phalanges or fingers. The next pair of directional terms refer to the position of a structure relative to the body's surface.

These are easy to remember because they are common words that we all use. superficial or external means nearest to the surface or outside of the body. In fact, if you take letters from the word superficial, you can actually spell surface.

If a person is superficial, it means they only care about outside appearances. They only care about the surface of something. Deep or internal means just the opposite. It is away from the outside of the body, away from the surface.

A deep wound is going to penetrate far below the surface of the skin. As you can see in this image, the liver is deep to the rib cage. The skin is superficial to the liver.

The heart is also deep to the rib cage. Or the bones would be deep to the skin. Or the skin would be superficial to the muscle or superficial to the bone. Finally, we have terms that refer to a structure's location relative to the midline of the body. Medial means toward the midline of the body and that's easy to remember because medial sounds a lot like middle and that's exactly what it's talking about.

A structure is toward the middle of the body and lateral means away from the body's midline. And lateral is easy to remember because a popular exercise to work out your shoulder muscles is something called lateral raises where you take the weights and you literally lift them away from the middle of the body. And the word intermediate means between two structures. So the humerus or the bone in the upper part of the arm would be lateral to the sternum, which is more toward the midline of the body, or the sternum would be medial to the humerus, or your knee would be intermediate between the ankle and the hip.

Okay, so that wraps up this video on the anatomical position and the directional terms. Now, I do have a free quiz on our website. If you check the description below, you can check that out and test your knowledge on the anatomical position and these directional terms.

In addition, I do hope to get out more anatomy and physiology lectures. So if you subscribe to our channel, we'll be putting together a playlist and you can check out all our lectures in that playlist over things like the muscles, the bones, and so forth. So thank you so much for watching.

Transcript for:Anatomical Terms and Position

Transcript for:
Anatomical Terms and Position