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Cerebral arteries

any of the three main (pairs of) arteries, or branches thereof, which perfuse the cerebrum of the brain

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ5064093 ↗
Source-derived summary

The cerebral arteries describe three main pairs of arteries and their branches, which perfuse the cerebrum of the brain.

The three main arteries are the:

Anterior cerebral artery (ACA), which supplies blood to the medial portion of the brain, including the superior parts of the frontal and anterior parietal lobes

Middle cerebral artery (MCA), which supplies blood to the majority of the lateral portion of the brain, including the temporal and lateral-parietal lobes. It is the largest of the cerebral arteries and is often affected in strokes

Posterior cerebral artery (PCA), which supplies blood to the posterior portion of the brain, including the occipital lobe, thalamus, and midbrain

Both the ACA and MCA originate from the cerebral portion of the internal carotid artery, while the PCA branches from the intersection of the posterior communicating artery and the anterior portion of the basilar artery. The three pairs of arteries are linked via the anterior communicating artery and the posterior communicating arteries. All three arteries send out arteries that perforate the brain in the medial central portions prior to branching and further bifurcating.

The arteries are usually divided into different segments from 1–4 or 5 to denote how far the level of the branch with the lower numbers denoting vessels closer to the source artery. Even though the arteries branching off these vessels retain some aspect of constancy in terms of size and position, a great amount of variety in topography, position, source and prominence nevertheless exists.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Cerebral arteries” as any of the three main (pairs of) arteries, or branches thereof, which perfuse the cerebrum of the brain. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 245-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Cerebral, arteries and three can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as any of the three main (pairs of) arteries, or branches thereof, which perfuse the cerebrum of the brain. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5064093. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Cerebral arteries” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.