system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why is trauma inflicted on your temples more serious than anywhere else on your head? Your brain is still protected by your skull in that area, so what specifically makes it so much worse?
gpt
None of the answers so far are quite right. 

Firstly, as you quite rightly say the it is still protected by the skull. The skull is not a solid structure though, it's made up of many boned that fuse together as we age. The temple is one place where the bones join together. Because of this they are a bit of a weak point. 

The issue is that theres a load of important stuff below two of the joining bones - the parietal bone and the temporal bone. 

There are major blood vessels under there. Blood vessels in the skull are not all veins/arteries but cavities called sinuses. Most of them run just under the skull and when the skull breaks it can stab through into them causing a serious bleed. The skull is really bad at regulating blood pressure, and loss of blood can lead to certian areas of the brain been starved of oxygen and dying.

A lot of our more obvious functions are associated with brain areas on the side of the head too. When the bone breaks around the temple it can (and often does) crack horizontally. This can cause damage to areas of the brain associated with language, movement and sensory information. Most of these are near the temple, rather than under it. The extent of damage depends on the degree of skull trauma. 


In summary, it is a weak spot and there are some important things going on nearby.