The pituitary hangs from the hypothalamus, a part of the brain located immediately above it, by a thread-like stalk that contains both blood vessels and nerves. Hormones produced in the hypothalamus carry signals or messages to the pituitary gland. The hypothalamus serves as a “switching station” to relay signals from many different parts of the brain to the pituitary gland, which in turn transmits its own signals to various parts of the body. The pituitary is divided into a larger anterior region (adenohypophysis) and a smaller posterior area (neurohypophysis). It sits in a small pocket of bone in the base of the skull called the pituitary fossa, also known as the sella turcica, or Turkish saddle, because of the resemblance. The sella turcica is located deep within the skull, which can be imagined by drawing an imaginary line from the top of the nose through the brain to the back of the head, and from ear to ear. The point at which they intersect is where the pituitary gland sits.
