Fontanelle

A fontanelle (or fontanel) (colloquially, soft spot) is an anatomical feature of the infant human skull comprising any of the soft membranous gaps (sutures) between the cranial bones that make up the calvaria of a fetus or an infant. Fontanelles allow for rapid stretching and deformation of the neurocranium as the brain expands faster than the surrounding bone can grow. Premature complete ossification of the sutures is called craniosynostosis.

During infancy, the anterior fontanelle is known as the bregma.

Structure

Fontanelles are soft spots on a baby's head which, during birth, enable the bony plates of the skull to flex, allowing the child's head to pass through the birth canal. The ossification of the bones of the skull causes the anterior fontanelle to close over by 9 to 18 months. The sphenoidal and posterior fontanelles close during the first few months of life. The closures eventually form the sutures of the neurocranium. Other than the anterior and posterior fontanelles, the mastoid fontanelle and the sphenoidal fontanelle are also significant.

Soft Spot

Soft Spot is the fourth album by alt-country band Clem Snide; as Eef Barzelay describes it, the album is the "good love songs" counterpart to the bad love songs of The Ghost of Fashion.

Track listing

Production

The album was produced by Joe Chiccarelli, who has produced Elton John, Frank Zappa, and Rufus Wainwright in the past; Barzelay (jokingly) told Rolling Stone that the reason Chiccarelli was talked into producing the album was that "he might have had some community service obligations or unpaid parking tickets." Half of the songs on the album were cut live.

Personnel

References