Rhombencephalons

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A pair of structures in the hindbrain involved in coordinating motor control and processing sensory information
2. Two parts of the developing brain that contribute to the medulla oblongata, pons, and cerebellum
3. Essential components in vertebrate brain anatomy that play crucial roles in reflexes and basic bodily functions

Etymology: This word is the plural of "rhombencephalon", so its story is really the story of that singular form. The term is built from two Greek elements: "rhomb", from the Greek "rhombos", meaning a spinning or rhombus-shaped figure, and "encephalon", from "enkephalos", meaning "brain" (literally "within the head"). The "rhomb" part refers to the diamond shape of the hindbrain's embryonic cavity, the fourth ventricle, which early anatomists saw as rhombus-shaped. Because the term is a technical coinage built from classical roots, it was made by anatomists rather than inherited from ancient writers. The hindbrain it names covers the pons, the medulla oblongata and the cerebellum, all structures that develop from this embryonic section. The plural simply names more than one such section, as in the embryonic hindbrain regions of several animals or stages of development.

Synonyms: hindbrains