CFD protocols
Spenoid movement
The sphenoid's movement, as is
the movement of all other structures in the head, is
derived from the motility of the brain, empowered by the
slight fill and emptying of the parenchyamtous or packing
cells within the brain matter and the coiling and uncoiling
of the ventricular mass, aided by their filling and partial
emptying of cerebral spinal fluid. This innate movement
deep in the cells of the body is actually a quality of all
tissue - all tissue breathe; filling [yang] and contracting
[yin], and this movement is echoed through the whole
structure allowing for a vertical and horizontal and
anteroposterior movement throughout the body, which we
attempt to quantify or label.
As a consequence to this innate movement of the interior of
the brain there is a correspondent movement [CFD module 4]
translated although in a less sophisticated way onto the
dural envelope that is contiguous with the outer part of
the brain - attached to the stocking-like gossamer thin
pial layer. The bones, as they are attached to the
endosteal layer of the dura mater echo the movement as the
tissues that they lie on all move underneath them.
A new babies cranium, as it starts to grow, accommodates
with this innate movement for the bony plates as they make
contact with the edge of each other – its neighbor – by
forming sutures that facilitate and perpetuate movement.
The sphenoid can be palpated from any other structure, but
this means that your palpation has to extend [without
looking] towards it. You will begin, as you practice, to
get the feel of movement or lack of. You will sense its
rotation through its body and the feel as if the
sphenobasilar junction rises up in flexion, as the body of
the sphenoid tips downward anteriorly, but superiorly at
its junctional relationship to the occiput. At the same
time the greater wings – that you may perceive at pterion –
will also give the impression of slight rotation as they
flare or expand outwards / laterally. Meanwhile the
occiput, its partner, will give you the feeling that it
drops into your hand as it too, rotates around an
horizontal axis, as the basiocciput rises with the body of
the sphenoid at the sphenobasilar junction [or
synchondrosis - a flexible but intermeshed joint].
If you palpate from the frontals and the parietals [vault]
you will feel an entirely different movement because your
attention will be on what is happening locally - that is
normal. The frontals will pull backwards, drop slightly and
flare around its junctional relationship with the sphenoid
at pterion. The parietals, likewise, will drop slightly
backwards and flare just above the ears - where the
greatest lateral excursion is felt - for this excursion is
empowered by the expansion laterally and anteriorly of the
temporal lobes beneath the temporal squama and lower parts
of the parietals.
Underneath the two parietal bones is the sphenoid, carried
and met by the frontals where the two bones [actually three
– as the frontal bone is really two] meet at the junction
of the greater wings and the orbital surface of the
frontals. The frontals expand laterally as they rotate
around a vertical axis through the orbital surface, so that
you have to imagine the two frontal bones moving away from
themselves through the area anterior to the metopic suture
[junction of the 2 parietals and the 2 frontals]. This
rotation helps to carry the expansion of the sphenoidal
wings laterally.
Furthermore, you have to remember that the frontals also
have a horizontal axis, as does the sphenoid. The frontals
rotate posteriorly, and the sphenoid rotates anteriorly and
downward. So there is a counter rotation where the two
bones meet, so to speak, so you have to sense this opposite
but complimentary rotation through the frontals and by
extension down to the sphenoid.
Of course, the idea is not to look, nor really extend your
awareness, but to wait for the force of the pattern to
reach your attention. Sometimes a dural hold via the bones
is all that is needed. Sometimes, you may be directed to
look at the sphenoid from afar and you may get the sense
that it is not bone but brain that you are to be attentive
of. The body has a wisdom better than ours, trust it.
Here are some pictures to remind you of the bony axis and
movement of the skull:
-
When you are on the dural envelope an interior vertical
strut – in this instance, the falx cerebri – has a direct
attachment on the ethmoid - a bone whose 'handle' the
crista galli, sticks up through the notch between the
anterior floor of the 2 frontal bones. As the dura rocks
backwards and forwards, this interior vertical falx pulls
gently on the ethmoid aiding its rotation, so that the
ethmoid, like a bellows, expands and contracts deep in our
nose acting as an air conditioning unit. This junctional
area is important because the ethmoidal-frontal interface
here, can get rigid and locked - paricularily with sinus
problems - and this in turn can restrict the sphenoid whose
relationship to the frontals is paramount, for as the
frontals move so does the sphenoid.
This picture above is inaccurate because of the angle it
was shot at, however you can imagine that the falx is a
more vertical septa or membrane that divides the two
hemispheres partially - that is, it separates the two lobes
until it meets the midline and brain at the top of the
corpus callosum. It is attached to the inside wall along
the sagittal suture where it bifurcates straddling the left
and right sides of the suture, and creates a major sinus
through which our returning blood flows [next module]. The
falx is made up of two leaves, each leaf being created by
the endosteal [bony layer] dura as it divides when they
meet the sagittal suture [obscured] as opposite parietal
and frontal interior dural coverings, then the two
invaginate and go down vertically making a strong interior
vertical leaf which you see here. Where the straight sinus
is, the membranes actually fan out again and make up the
floor of the posterior part of the brain, allowing the two
rear parts of the cerebral lobes/hemispheres to sit on them
– these are called the tentoria, and a small vertical slip
[falx cerebelli] carries down on the occipital squama
making a slight division between the two walnut sized
cerebelli.
You can see by this picture that the rotational axis of the
frontal is through a vertical axis [marked X] through the
superior orbital surface. This makes the outer margins of
the frontal appear to expand laterally - see where I have
placed some arrows.