Cranial Nerves

 

 

Cranial Nerves

The nerves attached to the brain are the cranial nerves, which are primarily responsible for the sensory and motor functions of the head and neck (one of these nerves targets organs in the thoracic and abdominal cavities as part of the parasympathetic nervous system). There are twelve cranial nerves, which are designated CNI through CNXII for “Cranial Nerve,” using Roman numerals for 1 through 12. They can be classified as sensory nerves, motor nerves, or a combination of both, meaning that the axons in these nerves originate out of sensory ganglia external to the cranium or motor nuclei within the brain stem. Sensory axons enter the brain to synapse in a nucleus. Motor axons connect to skeletal muscles of the head or neck. Three of the nerves are solely composed of sensory fibers; five are strictly motor; and the remaining four are mixed nerves.

Learning the cranial nerves is a tradition in anatomy courses, and students have always used mnemonic devices to remember the nerve names. A traditional mnemonic is the rhyming couplet, “On Old Olympus’ Towering Tops/A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops,” in which the initial letter of each word corresponds to the initial letter in the name of each nerve. The names of the nerves have changed over the years to reflect current usage and more accurate naming. An exercise to help learn this sort of information is to generate a mnemonic using words that have personal significance. The names of the cranial nerves are listed in Table 1 along with a brief description of their function, their source (sensory ganglion or motor nucleus), and their target (sensory nucleus or skeletal muscle).

This diagrams shows the brain and the main nerves in the brain are labeled.

Figure 5. The Cranial Nerves The anatomical arrangement of the roots of the cranial nerves observed from an inferior view of the brain.

Figure 5 shows where the nerves are located in the brain. The olfactory nerve and optic nerve are responsible for the sense of smell and vision, respectively. The oculomotor nerve is responsible for eye movements by controlling four of the extraocular muscles. It is also responsible for lifting the upper eyelid when the eyes point up, and for pupillary constriction. The trochlear nerve and the abducens nerve are both responsible for eye movement, but do so by controlling different extraocular muscles. The trigeminal nerve is responsible for cutaneous sensations of the face and controlling the muscles of mastication. The facial nerve is responsible for the muscles involved in facial expressions, as well as part of the sense of taste and the production of saliva. The vestibulocochlear nerve is responsible for the senses of hearing and balance. The glossopharyngeal nerve is responsible for controlling muscles in the oral cavity and upper throat, as well as part of the sense of taste and the production of saliva. The vagus nerve is responsible for contributing to homeostatic control of the organs of the thoracic and upper abdominal cavities. The spinal accessory nerve is responsible for controlling the muscles of the neck, along with cervical spinal nerves. The hypoglossal nerve is responsible for controlling the muscles of the lower throat and tongue.

 Table 1. Cranial Nerves
 Mnemonic # Name Function (S/M/B) Central connection (nuclei) Peripheral connection (ganglion or muscle)
On I Olfactory Smell (S) Olfactory bulb Olfactory epithelium
Old II Optic Vision (S) Hypothalamus/thalamus/midbrain Retina (retinal ganglion cells)
Olympus III Oculomotor Eye movements (M) Oculomotor nucleus Extraocular muscles (other 4), levator palpebrae superioris, ciliary ganglion (autonomic)
Towering IV Trochlear Eye movements (M) Trochlear nucleus Superior oblique muscle
Tops V Trigeminal Sensory/motor—face (B) Trigeminal nuclei in the midbrain, pons, and medulla Trigemal
A VI Abducens Eye movements (M) Abducens nucleus Lateral rectus muscle
Finn VII Facial Motor—face, Taste (B) Facial nucleus, solitary nucleus, superior salivatory nucleus Facial muscles, Geniculate ganglion, Pterygopalatine ganglion (autonomic)
And VIII Auditory (Vestibulocochlear) Hearing/balance (S) Cochlearn nucleus, Vestibular nucleus/cerebellum Spiral ganglion (hearing), Vestibular ganglion (balance)
German IX Glossopharyngeal Motor—throat Taste (B) Solitary nucleus, inferior salivatory nucleus, nucleus ambiguus Pharyngeal muscles, Geniculate ganglion, Otic ganglion (autonomic)
Viewed X Vagus Motor/sensory—viscera (autonomic) Medulla Terminal ganglia serving thoracic and upper abdominal organs (heart and small intestines)
Some XI Spinal Accessory Motor—head and neck (M) Spinal accessory nucleus Neck muscles
Hops XII Hypoglossal Motor—lower throat (M) Hypoglossal nucleus Muscles of the larynx and lower pharynx

Three of the cranial nerves also contain autonomic fibers, and a fourth is almost purely a component of the autonomic system. The oculomotor, facial, and glossopharyngeal nerves contain fibers that contact autonomic ganglia. The oculomotor fibers initiate pupillary constriction, whereas the facial and glossopharyngeal fibers both initiate salivation. The vagus nerve primarily targets autonomic ganglia in the thoracic and upper abdominal cavities.

Visit this site to read about a man who wakes with a headache and a loss of vision. His regular doctor sent him to an ophthalmologist due to the vision loss. The ophthalmologist recognizes a greater problem and immediately sends him to the emergency room. Once there, the patient undergoes a large battery of tests, but a definite cause cannot be found. A specialist recognizes the problem as meningitis, but the question is what caused it originally. How can that be cured? The loss of vision comes from swelling around the optic nerve, which probably presented as a bulge on the inside of the eye. Why is swelling related to meningitis going to push on the optic nerve?

Another important aspect of the cranial nerves that lends itself to a mnemonic is the functional role each nerve plays. The nerves fall into one of three basic groups. They are sensory, motor, or both (see Table 1). The sentence, “Some Say Marry Money But My Brother Says Brains Beauty Matter More,” corresponds to the basic function of each nerve.

The first, second, and eighth nerves are purely sensory: the olfactory (CNI), optic (CNII), and vestibulocochlear (CNVIII) nerves. The three eye-movement nerves are all motor: the oculomotor (CNIII), trochlear (CNIV), and abducens (CNVI). The spinal accessory (CNXI) and hypoglossal (CNXII) nerves are also strictly motor. The remainder of the nerves contain both sensory and motor fibers. They are the trigeminal (CNV), facial (CNVII), glossopharyngeal (CNIX), and vagus (CNX) nerves.

The nerves that convey both are often related to each other. The trigeminal and facial nerves both concern the face; one concerns the sensations and the other concerns the muscle movements. The facial and glossopharyngeal nerves are both responsible for conveying gustatory, or taste, sensations as well as controlling salivary glands. The vagus nerve is involved in visceral responses to taste, namely the gag reflex. This is not an exhaustive list of what these combination nerves do, but there is a thread of relation between them.

Aging and the Nervous System

Anosmia is the loss of the sense of smell. It is often the result of the olfactory nerve being severed, usually because of blunt force trauma to the head. The sensory neurons of the olfactory epithelium have a limited lifespan of approximately one to four months, and new ones are made on a regular basis. The new neurons extend their axons into the CNS by growing along the existing fibers of the olfactory nerve. The ability of these neurons to be replaced is lost with age. Age-related anosmia is not the result of impact trauma to the head, but rather a slow loss of the sensory neurons with no new neurons born to replace them.

Smell is an important sense, especially for the enjoyment of food. There are only five tastes sensed by the tongue, and two of them are generally thought of as unpleasant tastes (sour and bitter). The rich sensory experience of food is the result of odor molecules associated with the food, both as food is moved into the mouth, and therefore passes under the nose, and when it is chewed and molecules are released to move up the pharynx into the posterior nasal cavity.

Anosmia results in a loss of the enjoyment of food. As the replacement of olfactory neurons declines with age, anosmia can set in. Without the sense of smell, many sufferers complain of food tasting bland. Often, the only way to enjoy food is to add seasoning that can be sensed on the tongue, which usually means adding table salt. The problem with this solution, however, is that this increases sodium intake, which can lead to cardiovascular problems through water retention and the associated increase in blood pressure.