Okay I tried my best to make this as logical as I could using her slides, which was tough because those slides were all over the place :)

Here’s a fun youtube video to give you a basic understanding of this background stuff below - https://youtu.be/q8NtmDrb_qo?si=LlkznuSvPpB6mGxI

https://youtu.be/q8NtmDrb_qo?si=LlkznuSvPpB6mGxI

Background on the development of the brain:

Inside a developing embryo, the CNS starts off as a neural tube. The caudal end of this tube stretches out to form the spinal cord. The cranial end begins to expand, divide and enlarge into 3 primary brain vesicles:

• Prosencephalon (forebrain)
• Mesencephalon (midbrain)
• Rhombencephalon (hindbrain)

Both the Prosencephalon and the Rhombencephalon will divide further while the Mesencephalon (gives rise to midbrain) will remain unchanged.

The Prosencephalon will divide into:

• Telencephalon - develops into the cerebral hemispheres (made up of outer gray matter and inner white matter) and includes the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia and olfactory bulb
• Diencephalon which remains in the adult brain and contains the thalamus, hypothalamus, epithalamus and subthalamus

The rhombencephalon will divide into:

• Metencephalon - becomes the pons and cerebellum
• Myelencephalon - becomes medulla oblongata

<aside> 💡

So these terms that you will see floating around are derived from the embryological classification of the developing brain. Now that we understand what becomes what, we are gonna dive deeper into the prosencephalon and rhombencephalon stuff :)

</aside>

we are starting at the posterior aspect of the brain (rhombencephalon) and moving anteriorly (prosencephalon)…we aren’t discussing the midbrain in this lecture

The Rhombencephalon:

Rhombencephalon = myelencephalon(medulla oblongata) and metencephalon(pons and cerebellum)