Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
Commissure
Introduction
A commissure is the place where two things are joined. The term is used especially in the fields of anatomy and biology.
In anatomy, commissure can refer to a number of such bodily junctions. The most common usage of the term refers to the brain’s commissures, of which there are two—the anterior and posterior—and which consist of fibre tracts that connect the two cerebral hemispheres and span the longitudinal fissure. The term may also refer to the junction of the upper and lower lips, or of the upper and lower eyelids.
In biology, the meeting of the two valves of a brachiopod or clam is a commissure; and in botany, when a fern‘s laterally expanded vein endings come together in a continuous marginal sorus.
Editor-In-Chief: Template:Wikt C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]