It may also be acquired, seen in glassblowers due to continual forced expiration producing increased pressures in the larynx which leads to dilatation of the laryngeal ventricle (sinus of Morgagni).
The structure is also called the lateral aperture of the fourth ventricle or the foramen of Luschka after anatomist Hubert von Luschka.
In 2002 a research group at the University of Oslo discovered that muscles from the ventricle of failing hearts have increased responsiveness to serotonin.
The permeability of the septum was questioned by Michael Servetus in Christianismi Restitutio in 1553 and by Ibn al-Nafis in the 12th century and both proposed that the blood was pushed from the right ventricle to the left via the lungs, however, both of these accounts were largely forgotten.