Which statement accurately describes embolic stroke?

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Embolic stroke happens when a piece of material—solid like a clot or debris, or even a small amount of liquid such as fat or air—forms away from the brain and travels through the bloodstream until it lodges in a cerebral artery, abruptly blocking blood flow to part of the brain. This traveling embolus often causes a sudden, maximal neurological deficit because the brain area it supplies is suddenly deprived of blood. The source is commonly the heart (for example, atrial fibrillation or a recent heart attack with a left ventricular thrombus) or other large arteries, and the blockage can occur in different territories since the embolus can settle anywhere along the cerebral circulation.

This matches the idea of a solid or liquid traveling to a distant site and then causing obstruction, which is why that option best describes an embolic stroke. In contrast, a gradually developing blockage points to thrombosis from local atherosclerotic disease; clots originating specifically in neck arteries imply local thrombus rather than a distant embolus; and a hemorrhagic stroke results from rupture and bleeding, not from an occluding clot.