Middle Cerebral Artery

The middle cerebral artery is one of the main blood vessels of the human brain. It supplies a large area of the cerebral cortex and the basal ganglia. Being a paired artery, there is one for each cerebral hemisphere. It is in this artery or in one of its branches that most of the cerebral strokes occur, either through occlusion or through rupture and bleeding.

The middle cerebral artery is the continuation of the internal carotid artery, which changes its name after it has given off the anterior cerebral, the posterior communicating, and the anterior choroidal artery. From its point of origin, the middle cerebral artery travels laterally and then enters deep into the lateral sulcus (sylvian fissure), running slightly backwards. In this first portion, it gives off the lenticulostriate (or anterolateral central) arteries, which are four branches that supply the basal ganglia.

Then the middle cerebral artery runs upward in the lateral sulcus and emerges on the superior and lateral surface of the cerebral hemisphere. Along the way, it sends important branches that supply a large area of the brain with oxygenated blood; these branches are the cortical, orbital, frontal, parietal, temporal, and striate artery, supplying large areas of the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobe of the cerebral hemisphere, as well as the insula.

Below, schematic image of inferior surface of human brain, showing the internal carotid and the middle cerebral artery as its continuation. You can also see both the vertebral and the basilar artery.