Protection of The Brain
The brain and spinal cord are covered by a series of tough membranes called meninges, which protect these organs from rubbing against the bones of the skull and spine. The cerebrospinal fluid within the skull and spine is found between the pia mater and the Arachnoid and provides further cushioning.
The Cerebrospinal Fluid that is produced in the ventricular system has three main purposes: buoyancy, protection, and chemical stability. The protection purpose comes into play with the meninges: pia mater, and the Arachnoid layer. The CSF is there to protect the brain from striking the cranium when the head is jolted. CSF provided buoyancy and support to the brain against gravity. The buoyancy protects the brain since the brain and CSF are similar in density; this makes the brain float in neutral buoyancy, suspended in the CSF. This allows the brain to attain a decent size and weight without resting on the floor of the cranium, which would kill nervous tissue.
Read more about this topic: Ventricular System
Famous quotes containing the words protection of the, protection of, protection and/or brain:
“The protection of a ten-year-old girl from her father’s advances is a necessary condition of social order, but the protection of the father from temptation is a necessary condition of his continued social adjustment. The protections that are built up in the child against desire for the parent become the essential counterpart to the attitudes in the parent that protect the child.”
—Margaret Mead (1901–1978)
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—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)
“What is marriage, is marriage protection or religion, is marriage renunciation or abundance, is marriage a stepping-stone or an end. What is marriage.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Public morning diversions were the last dissipating habit she obtained; but when that was accomplished, her time was squandered away, the power of reflection was lost, [and] her ideas were all centered in dress, drums, routs, operas, masquerades, and every kind of public diversion. Visionary schemes of pleasure were continually present to her imagination, and her brain was whirled about by such a dizziness that she might properly be said to labor under the distemper called the vertigo.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)