The brain is protected from injury by the skull, meninges, cerebrospinal fluid and the blood-brain barrier.

The function of the meninges is to cover and protect the brain itself. It encloses and protects the vessels that supply the brain and contains CSF between the pia mater and arachnoid maters. Immediately deep to the periosteum is the periosteal and meningeal which create the dura mater . The dura mater is found all around the brain and its 2 layers separate and create spaces called dural sinuses. The meningeal separates from the periosteal and goes down into the longitudinal fissure. The space that is firmed is a sinus.Deep to the dura m ater is the potential subdural space and deep to that is the arachnoid mater and its named arachnoid because of its spider-leggy appearance.

Deep to the arachnoid mater is the potential subarachnoid space. Our deepest layer is the pia mater which is a very delicate connective tissue. It literally means soft mother as opposed to dura mater which means durable mother.

The arachnoid villi (villus for singular) protrude from the arachnoid mater (the thin second layer) and allow CSF to exit the brain and pass into the blood. The continuation of the meningeal becomes the falx cerebri pictured above and is found only in the longitudinal fissure.

The falx cerebri is the fusion of the meningeal layers of the dura mater below the superior sagittal sinus. Thesuperior sagittal sinus is the largest dural sinus and filled with blood.