Rostral

"Rostral" is an anatomical term derived from "rostrum", the Latin word for beak. In neuroscience, it's typically used to describe a direction towards the front end of the brain, essentially meaning towards the face or nose.

The rostral direction is often used interchangeably with the term "anterior" when referring to structures in the cerebrum. This direction points towards the forehead in the standard anatomical position of the human body (standing upright, facing forward).

However, in the brainstem and spinal cord, "rostral" refers to a direction towards the top of the head or towards the brain. This is because the bend in the neural axis of bipedal organisms can make the terms "anterior" and "posterior" ambiguous or confusing when referring to these structures.

In quadruped animals, where the body and brain are aligned horizontally, the term "rostral" is used to denote a direction towards the animal's nose, effectively synonymous with "anterior".