Directional Terms: Front and Back - Video Tutorials & Practice Problems

Anterior and Posterior

For the front and the back of the body. We're gonna have two sets of terms and these two sets of terms are gonna be largely redundant. We're gonna focus more on the first set of terms because you're more likely to be tested on it. And at least in this set of the videos going forward, we're gonna always try to use that first set of terms just for consistency. The second set of terms you may be tested on it. But regardless, you probably still just want to know it because they're used commonly enough that you're going to see it sometimes. And when you do see it, you're gonna want to know what it means. All right. So that first set of terms is just anterior and posterior and anterior just means towards the front. Well, posterior means towards the back. Now, for anterior and posterior, these words are really referring to the way you move. So when you move forward, the part of you that is facing forward, that is your anterior part of the body. And when you move forward, the part of you that is facing backwards, that's your posterior part of the body so we can use some examples here, right. Uh the chest is going to be anterior to the back, the back is gonna be posterior to the chest. We'll do another one. The nose is anterior to the ear, the ear is posterior to the nose. Remember all things are relative comparison to something else. So while the ear was posterior to the nose, the ear is anterior to the back of the head. All right, for that other set of terms, our set of terms are ventral and dorsal. Ventral just means towards the belly and dorsal means towards the back. But when we're saying back this time, we mean more like towards the spine towards the back of the body. Now, in humans, when you walk forward, your belly is facing forward. So anterior and ventral are the same and likewise posterior and dorsal are the same. If you walk on two legs, that's not true for most animals. And that's why we have two sets of terms that end up being redundant in humans. In a dog, the dog is walking on all fours, its face is facing forward in an anterior direction, but its belly, its ventral side is facing down towards the ground. So in something that walks on all fours, uh anterior and ventral are sort of at a 90 degree angle. But if you stand on two legs, they face the same way. All right. With that, we have an example and some practice problems below. I'll see you there.

Directional Terms: Front and Back Example 1

This example asks us to put some marks on this body based on our anatomical directional terms. And as we look, we have a silhouette of a female body looking towards the right. So first off, we want to put an asterisk anterior to the calf muscle. Well, the calf muscle is down here in the back of the leg and anterior means anywhere towards the front of the body. So I'm gonna put an asterisk right on the shin here pretty good. Next up, we have an o posterior to the navel or the belly button. Well, the navel or belly button right here in the front of the abdomen, posterior to that posterior means anywhere towards the back of the body. So I'm gonna put my o sort of behind the belly button right here, kind of on the small of the back. Next up, we have a plus on the ventral side of the neck. Remember ventral and dorsal. We said you're less likely to be responsible for, but you should know them just because they come up so much. So ventral means towards the front or towards the belly of the body. So the front of the neck is where we're gonna put this plus sign. I'm gonna put it right here. And then finally an X on the dorsal side of the abdomen, the dorsal side of the abdomen, dorsal towards the back of the body, abdomen that you know, middle part of your trunk. Well, that's right where I put the uh the o on the small of the back, but I'll put an X right next to it. All right with that, we have some more practice problems below and I'll see you in the next video.

The spine is ______________ to the intestines.

• A. Anterior 
• B. Posterior
• C. Superior
• D. Inferior

During a surgery to insert a Deep Brain Stimulation device in a patient with Parkinson's disease, the surgeon wants to instruct the other doctors that the device should be moved closer to the patient's face. How could the doctor communicate this?

• A. Move the device anterior to the current location.
• B. Move the device superior to the current location. 
• C. Move the device inferior to the current location. 
• D. Move the device posterior to the current location.