Are the bones of the skull mobile? And is there any research related to this issue?

Interesting question :) It is clear that there is a temporomandibular joint, there is no doubt about it, of course, it is mobile.

But I think you asked about the rest of the bones of the skull, because you probably heard for example, from osteopaths or people who are trying to work with their hands with the face and body, they often say: "the bones of the skull are mobile." Let's figure it out, I'll tell you now :)

I am a neurologist, an osteopathic doctor. Therefore, I know medicine from two sides, from a position, let's say, classical and from the position of "osteopathic".

The skull is not one bone, it is a whole set of bones connected to each other with special sutures. I won't go deep into basic anatomy, you can read it on Wikipedia. I will dwell only on interesting points that you will not find on the Internet.

In general, our body is a very complex and very perfect "mechanism". Not a single most complex computer or anything invented by man even stood next to a biologically complex creature in perfection. Therefore, any anatomical features exist for a reason.

A person is born with a much larger number of bones, including in the skull. This is how nature ordered that the head of the fetus must pass through a rather narrow birth canal and must adapt to them. Therefore, a newborn has more bones, there is more connective (elastic) tissue between them and they are very mobile.

With age, some bones grow together and we, in normal anatomy , believe that they are motionless. Yes it is. Any doctor will tell you so and will be right. BUT there are nuances:

1) Anatomy is always a description of a non-living person. This is a posthumous description of all the details, without taking into account all the processes that make us alive.

2) What is mobility? Shift by 1mm? And less, is it mobility or not?

In the practice of an osteopathic physician, we consider the body as a whole and devote a lot of time to the subtle processes of biomechanics that are outside the field of vision of normal anatomy.

We often say that the bones of the skull move . I want to say right away that there are a lot of charlatans in the field of osteopathy and incompetent specialists. They, left and right, talk to everyone about the movement of bones, without understanding what it is, and thus, misleading patients. It is very difficult to explain in two paragraphs about complex mechanisms, but omitting a lot of details the most basic:

It would be more correct to say that by the movement of the bones of the skull we mean:

• some elasticity at the seams between the bones. After all, some of the bones of the skull grow together, we have already talked about this. They grow together because that is where the movements should not be. And the other bones of the skull are never passionate! And in these seams - the joints between the bones, "micromotions" take place. In quotes, because this is not even movement, it is, increased elasticity. And these micro-movements between two adjacent bones, often, cannot be caught, it is much easier to feel them throughout the skull whenthe effect is summed up. All seams of the skull have a strictly defined shape, angles of inclination, the direction of the fibers of the connective tissue in the seams. All this was created by nature to provide the skull with this very elasticity, that is, "movement".

Well, think for yourself, wherever there is no movement between the bones, they are passionate among themselves there will be one bone.

These micromovements / elasticity / "cranial rhythm" determine its strength and many other properties, but more on that another time :)

For good - no, not mobile. :) Only if the lower jaw. But it all depends on the behavior of some people or their luck. Sometimes it happens that a person walks, and a figak on his head with reinforcement - everything moves at once :))

No, of course, they are not mobile, as the author said, there is one joint - the temporomandibular (art. tempromandibularis)

At least it would be strange if all our bones of the skull were mobile)

The only movable bone of the skull is the lower jaw, it has a joint. The rest of the bones are connected by bone sutures and should not be mobile.