Question

Foramen of Monro is
(a)The gap in the pelvic girdle of rabbit
(b)Foramen in the skull of frog
(c)Channels in the brain of a rabbit
(d)Pore in the interauricular septum in a mammalian heart

Answer 1

The foramina were named after Alexander Monro, a Scottish physician and graduate of the University of Edinburgh, who first described an expanded foramen in the sense of hydrocephalus, and then, in his 1783 publication, Observations on the Structure and Functions of the Nervous System.

Complete answer:
In the brain, the lateral ventricles are connected to that of the third ventricle at the brain's midline by the interventricular foramina/Foramen of Monro channels. As channels, they allow the lateral ventricles formed by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to enter the third ventricle and then the rest of the brain's ventricular system. The interventricular foramina walls have choroid plexus, which is a specialized CSF-producing structure that remains continuous above and below that of the lateral and third ventricles. The front of the foramen has a fornix and has thalamus behind. The foramen is typically crescent-shaped, but rounds and increases in size according to the size of the lateral ventricles.
Function: The interventricular foramina walls contain choroid plexus, which is a complex structure producing cerebrospinal fluid. The choroid plexus of the third ventricles continue via foramina into the lateral ventricles.
So, the correct answer is ‘Channels in the brain of a rabbit’.

Note: In humans and other animals, if the Foramen of Monro is blocked then it results in headache, dementia, fainting, and coma. All these consequences are because of the accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain and this phenomenon is called hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is most often treated with the surgical insertion of a drainage tube, called a shunt.