Anatomy and physiology study guide

Hello all! Just a quick post to say my next Anatomical Figure Drawing workshop at the Palette & Chisel Academy of Fine Arts has been scheduled. Like the other workshops, this includes three hours of intensive figure drawing from a live model and a simultaneous lecture on the associated anatomy, including identification of bony and muscular surface landmark, comparison of these to anatomical images, and discussion of each features variations.



This workshop will focus on anatomy of anterior torso, which includes rib cage, clavicular, and sternal features and well as muscles of the chest and abdomen. It will be held on February 23 from 9:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. (Again, coffee is available just a few doors down!) We will have a fantastic model with a very defined physique.

For more information about this workshop series, check out the original post about it.

The Palette and Chisel is located at 1012 N. Dearborn in Chicago. It is easily accessible from either the red or brown el trains and from the CTA bus. Parking within a few blocks is also fairly easy on Sunday mornings.

Each workshop is $40, which covers the instruction, the space, and the model. Class size is limited to 12, and a supply list will be emailed to you upon registration. I would love to see you there! To register, go to the sign-up page here, or click on the image above.

Why do men have nipples? In women, of course, the major function is clear: nipples provide a convenient milk-delivery device for a hungry infant to latch onto. Nature has even made it easier for babies to find the nipple by causing the areola to turn darker during pregancy. (At least thats one explanation; personally I think mothers are pretty good at guiding babies to the nipple with or without the additional color contrast.)

In men, however, the nipples serve no obvious function. They certainly have nothing to do with delivering milk. Lactation has never been observed in any healthy male mammal. I had to qualify that last statement with "healthy" because there are diseases, such as certain tumors of the pituitary gland, that can cause men to produce milk, an inconvenient condition called galactorrhea. An imbalance in the endocrine system can also cause gynecomastia, enlargement of the male breast. Still, these are rare exceptions to the rule. Nipples and breasts may have the potential to be useful in men, but in general they appear to be extraneous.

So why do we have them? Could male nipples be vestigial organs, evolutionary equivalents of the appendix? Darwin proposed that male mammals once shared the job of providing milk to their young. Its delightful conjecture, and not unreasonable, but it remains in the realm of just-so stories because (so far) there is no way to test its validity. If the story were true, you might expect the most anatomically primitive mammals - monotremes such as the duck-billed platypus and echidna - to have males with more highly developed nipples. In fact, we see the opposite: monotremes - male and female - have no nipples at all (but the females still lactate, expressing milk via little pores in the skin). Im only aware of a couple mammal groups in which the female has nipples and the male doesnt (a feature we might call "mammillary sexual dimorphism"): horses and rodents. If male nipples are on their way out, they sure are tenacious.

Whether or not male nipples are a relic of evolution, they are almost certainly a relic of development. In the earliest weeks following conception, the male and female embryo follow a virtually identical developmental trajectory. Then at about 7 weeks, the production of testosterone kicks in and the male diverges anatomically from the female. By then its too late: nipples have already formed in both sexes. Biologically its conceivable that random mutations could reverse the continued growth of the male nipple, causing it to involute and disappear completely by the time the baby boy is born, but apparently there hasnt been pressure for such mutations to take hold, if they have occurred. There are occasional mutations that lead to the absence of one or both nipples (in both males and females), but they are typically associated with other defects such as missing muscles and sweat glands and webbing of the fingers.

So are male nipples utterly useless? Its hard to respond with an unqualified "yes," because someone can always come up with something plausible. In some men the nipple may be considered an "erogenous zone," but what part of the male anatomy isnt? Even the appendix, the poster child of vestigial organs, isnt totally useless: it contains an abundance of lymphocytes and other cells that fight infection. Still, as many appendectomy patients can attest, we can live perfectly well without it. The same goes for nipples in men.*

In the interest of gender equity, what about women? Do women have anything similar to a male nipple, an essentially useless part of their anatomy that reflects a developmental constraint? In a classic (1987) and controversial essay called "Male Nipples and Clitoral Ripples," the late paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould argued that the clitoris, along with the female orgasm, fits the bill. The argument is further elaborated in a recently published book by biologist and philosopher of science Elisabeth A. Lloyd: The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in the Science of Evolution. Evidently she makes a good case (click here for a review), but lingering doubts are understandable. I suspect that the average woman places a much, much higher value on her clitoris than the average man places on his nipples.

Instead of weighing in on that controversy, Id like to propose a better female analogue of the male nipple: the round ligament of the uterus. The round ligaments are two slender ropes of connective tissue that run from the top of the uterus to the front side of the abdominal wall, pass through the inguinal canal (approximately at the level of the bikini line), and ultimately blend into the fatty connective tissue of the labia majora.

In the female fetus, you can trace the round ligament from the abdominal wall all the way up to the ovaries. At those early stages of development the round ligament is referred to as the gubernaculum, which means governor (same root as gubernatorial). The male fetus has a gubernaculum, too, except that its attached to testes, not ovaries. As the fetus grows, the role of the gubernaculum is similar in both the male and female: it gently guides the gonads (i.e., testes or ovaries) during their descent from their birthplace in the upper part of the abdomen. As they descend, the gubernaculum gets shorter.

There the similarities end. The testes have much farther to go. While the ovaries drop down into the relatively well-protected pelvic cavity (the space surrounded by the hip bones), the testes travel onward, punching a tunnel (i.e., the inguinal canal) through the abdominal wall and ending up suspended in an outpouching of the abdominal wall called the scrotum. Click here for a little animation of the testes squeezing through the abdominal wall (the greenish band is the gubernaculum).

The different fates of the ovaries and testes are reflected in the gubernaculum. In the male, each gubernaculum shortens as much as possible and leaves little or no remnant in the scrotum. In the female, the middle of the gubernaculum fuses with the top of the uterus, forming what appear to be two separate ligaments: (1) the ligament of the ovary, which connects the ovary to the uterus, and (2) the round ligament of the uterus, which connects the uterus to the abdominal wall. See the illustration below.

The ligaments of the ovary may serve a useful function: each one appears to maintain the proper distance between the ovary and the uterus, so that the fallopian tube can receive eggs from the ovary during ovulation.

But the round ligaments? As far as I can tell, theyre useless. One popular (and generally trustworthy) online resource (The Interactive Body Guide) suggests that the "round ligaments hold the uterus anteverted (inclined forward) over the urinary bladder." Seems reasonable, until you realize that something like 20-30% of women are born with a uterus that is retroverted (inclinded backward). The retroverted configuration is considered a perfectly normal variation that has no effect on fertility. In other words, the round ligaments arent very good at holding the uterus forward because theres no good reason for them to be.

Not only are round ligaments unnecessary, they can be a real pain - literally. As the uterus grows during pregnancy, the round ligaments stretch like rubber bands and tug on the abdominal wall, often causing round ligament pain. Fortunately the pain can usually be relieved with simple measures such as a hot bath, a shift of body position, or Tylenol. Like male nipples, the round ligaments of the uterus are relatively minor anatomical flaws, and any inconvenience they cause pales in comparison to the many anatomical marvels of the human body.

*More resources on male nipples:

• Why Do Men Have Nipples? A hilarious article from Salon.com.
• Why Do Men Have Nipples? A classic Q&A from The Straight Dope.
• Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions Youd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini I havent read it yet, but its on my wish list.

Hello, and welcome back! I am happy to say we will finally finish up the dorsal forearm today. Who knew such a small area of the body would require so many posts? We began with Dorsal Forearm: Compartment Search, in which we learned to identify the two compartments of the forearm-- an important first step in becoming oriented in such a complex muscular landscape. Then we learned about dorsal forearm muscles that are closer to the ulnar (pinky) side of the forearm in Dorsal Forearm: Which Side Are You On Anyway? As those muscles are easiest to identify, it was best we covered them first and then use them to find the remaining forearm muscles, which well cover today.

By the way, if you are interested in reading about the less complex tendinous landmarks of the ventral forearm, check out the very first post, The Ventral Forearm: What are those Tendons?

So. When we last left off in our forearm saga, we were looking at, among other structures, the "twin muscles," two muscles that look very much alike and run directly down the dorsal side of the forearm. Their similarity to one another as well as their central location on the dorsal forearm make them among the easiest to identify in this area.

The last three muscles well cover on the dorsal forearm can be found just radial to the twins-- meaning closer to the thumb side of the arm compared to the centrally located twins. Its no coincidence that each of these three muscles have the root "radial" in their names. As well as indicating that these muscles are found on the radial side of the arm, this root also tells us that these muscles pull the hand toward that side. This movement is known as abduction of the hand. Hence the fact that radial side arm muscles tend to abduct.

Key: Tlat: triceps, lateral head; Tten: triceps tendon; BrR: brachioradialis; ECRL: extensor carpi radialis longus; ECRB: extensor carpi radialis brevis; LE: lateral epicondyle; Anc: anconeus; OP: olecranon process; ED: extensor digitorum; EDM: extensor digiti minimi; ECU: extensor carpi ulnaris; FCU: flexor carpi ulnaris; APL: abductor pollucis longus; EPB: extensor pollucis brevis; EPL: extensor pollucis longus

The photo above shows a dorsal forearm and an abducted hand. Because radial side muscles abduct the hand, they will stand out more in this position than in any other. The easiest one to spot is extensor carpi radialis longus, as it stands out clearly right next to the lateral epicondyle. Notice its oblique course compared to the surrounding dorsal forearm muscles. Notice also that it and brachioradialis originate on the upper arm (unlike the twin muscles that originate at the lateral epicondyle of the humerus.)

At the distal end of the arm, you may also notice three smaller muscles, abductor pollucis longus, extensor pollucis brevis, and extensor pollucis longus. While these muscles stand out clearly here, they often dont. We will look at them more closely later. You may remember, however, that we have already observed their tendons (which can be seen at the base of the thumb) in the post on the dorsal hand.

Ive also pointed out the lateral head of the triceps and the triceps tendon, structures on the posterior upper arm. We will cover these later, but this photo shows them very clearly.

Now lets take a look at this arm without the structure overlay: