A cavity or chamber. Both the heart and brain have anatomical parts known as ventricles.
The brain has 4 ventricles: 1 in each of the 2 cerebral hemispheres; a 3rd at the centre of the brain, above the brainstem; and a 4th between the brainstem and cerebellum. These cavities are filled with cerebrospinal fluid.
The ventricles of the heart are its 2 lower chambers, which receive blood from each atrium and pump it to the lungs and to the rest of the body.
(1) The term applied to the two lower cavities of the HEART, and also to the four main cavities within the BRAIN.
n. 1. either of the two lower chambers of the *heart, which have thick muscular walls. The left ventricle, which is thicker than the right, receives blood from the pulmonary vein via the left atrium and pumps it into the aorta. The right ventricle pumps blood received from the venae cavae (via the right atrium) into the pulmonary artery. 2. one of the four fluid-filled cavities within the brain (see illustration). The paired first and second ventricles (lateral ventricles), one in each cerebral hemisphere, communicate with the third ventricle in the midline between them. This in turn leads through a narrow channel, the cerebral aqueduct, to the fourth ventricle in the hindbrain, which is continuous with the spinal canal in the centre of the spinal cord. *Cerebrospinal fluid circulates through all the cavities. —ventricular adj.
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