Anatomy and function
The middle cerebral artery is usually a terminal branch of the internal carotid artery. It passes laterally into the lateral fissure and branches to supply much of the lateral cerebral surface.
Where to look in the model
Red branches extend across the lateral surface; only selected major courses are illustrated.
What this view does not establish
The MCA is not part of the arterial ring of the circle of Willis. Not all M2–M4 branches or lenticulostriate arteries are shown.
Open in 3DSources and precision
Cortex uses the FreeSurfer fsaverage5 template surface, with 10,242 vertices per hemisphere. Functional references use selected Destrieux sulcal and gyral parcels. Deep structures use fsaverage aseg segmentations. The Sereno2020 cerebellar research surface preserves folial geometry, but comes from another specimen; its assembled placement is schematic, without medical registration across templates. Arterial paths are manually drawn teaching schematics, not CTA/MRA reconstructions.
An educational schematic prototype for understanding spatial relationships. Item-by-item independent neuroanatomical review is pending. Functional highlights are not results of an individual examination and do not support individual diagnosis or treatment decisions.