Basic genetic principles applied to posterior fossa malformations.

Recent advances in neuroimaging techniques turned possible for neuroradiologists to be frequently the first one to detect possible brain structural anomalies. However, with all the recent advances in genetics and embryology, understanding posterior fossa malformation's principles is being hardest to be achieved than previously. Studies in vertebrate models provide a developmental framework in which to categorize human hindbrain malformations and serve to inform our thinking regarding candidate genes involved in disrupted developmental processes. The main focus of this review was to survey the basic principles of the rhombomere division, anteroposterior and dorsoventral patterning, alar and basal zone concept, and axonal path finding to integrate the knowledge of human hindbrain malformations for better understanding the genetic basis of hindbrain development.