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Overview of the Skull

Overview of the Skull

The cranium (skull) is the skeletal structure of the head that supports the face and protects the brain. It is subdivided into the facial bones and the brain case, or cranial vault. The facial bones underlie the facial structures, form the nasal cavity, enclose the eyeballs, and support the teeth of the upper and lower jaws.
The cranial vault surrounds and protects the brain and houses the middle and inner ear structures. This cavity is bounded superiorly by the rounded top of the skull, which...

Cranial Bones: Lateral View

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The lateral view of the cranium is dominated by temporal, sphenoid, and ethmoid bones.
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Sutures of the Skull

Sutures of the Skull

The human skull is composed of several bones that come together to protect the brain and support the structures of the face. The junctions where these bones meet are called sutures.
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The Cochlea

The Cochlea

The cochlea is a coiled structure in the inner ear that contains hair cells—the sensory receptors of the auditory system. Sound waves are transmitted to the cochlea by small bones attached to the eardrum called the ossicles, which vibrate the oval window that leads to the inner ear. This causes fluid in the chambers of the cochlea to move, vibrating the basilar membrane.

Perception of Sound Waves

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The human ear is not equally sensitive to all frequencies in the audible range. It may perceive sound waves with the same pressure but different frequencies as having different loudness. Moreover, the perception of sound waves depends on the health of an individual's ears, which decays with age. The health of one's ears may also be affected by regular exposure to loud noises.
The pitch of a sound depends on the frequency and the pressure amplitude of the source. Two sounds of the same...

Cranial Bones: Superior and Posterior View

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The superior view of the cranium shows the frontal and paired parietal bones.
The frontal bone is the single bone that forms the forehead. At its anterior midline, between the eyebrows, there is a slight depression called the glabella. The frontal bone also forms the supraorbital margin of the orbit. Near the middle of this margin is the supraorbital foramen, the opening that provides passage for a sensory nerve to the forehead. The frontal bone is thickened just above each supraorbital margin,...

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Extracting the Cochlea from a Human Temporal Bone: A Cadaveric Protocol

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Acoustic properties across the human skull.

Thomas S Riis¹, Taylor D Webb¹, Jan Kubanek¹

¹Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, 84112, UT, United States.

|October 30, 2021

Summary

Transcranial focused ultrasound therapies are advancing, but skull bone significantly distorts ultrasound waves. This study reveals parietal bone offers better ultrasound transmission than frontal or occipital regions, guiding future device development.

Keywords:

Attenuation Phase Skull Thickness Transcranial ultrasound Transmission

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Biomedical Engineering
Acoustics

Background:

Transcranial focused ultrasound (TUS) offers noninvasive treatments for brain disorders, including surgery, drug delivery, and neuromodulation.
Skull bone severely attenuates and distorts ultrasound waves, limiting TUS efficacy and safety.
Understanding skull's acoustic properties is crucial for optimizing TUS applications.

Purpose of the Study:

To characterize how specific human skull bone segments affect ultrasound wave propagation at 500 kHz.
To quantify ultrasound transmission and phase distortion across different skull regions.
To correlate acoustic properties with skull thickness for improved TUS device design.

Main Methods:

Measured ultrasound pressure transmission and phase distortion across the perimeter of intact human skulls at 500 kHz.
Analyzed acoustic properties in relation to specific anatomical regions: parietal, frontal, and occipital bone.
Correlated ultrasound transmission and phase distortion with skull thickness.

Main Results:

Parietal bone exhibited significantly higher ultrasound transmission (31 ± 7%) and lower phase distortion (242 ± 44 degrees) compared to frontal (13 ± 2%, 425 ± 47 degrees) and occipital (16 ± 4%, 416 ± 35 degrees) regions.
Ultrasound transmission showed a strong negative correlation (R=-0.79) with skull thickness.
Phase distortion showed a strong positive correlation (R=0.85) with skull thickness.

Conclusions:

Skull bone properties, particularly thickness and anatomical location, critically impact transcranial ultrasound efficacy.
Parietal bone is more transmissive to ultrasound than frontal and occipital bone.
Findings provide essential data for designing next-generation transcranial focused ultrasound devices with enhanced accuracy and safety.