Cranial nerve nucleus

A cranial nerve nucleus is a collection of neurons(gray matter) in the brain stemthat is associated with one or more cranial nerves.

There are several cranial nerve nuclei (roman numeral refers to the cranial nerve number):

• In medulla oblongata:
  • Hypoglossal nucleus(XII) - motor
  • Dorsal motor nucleus of vagus nerve(X) - visceromotor
  • Nucleus ambiguus(IX, X, XI) - motor
  • Solitary nucleus(VII, IX, X) - sensory
  • Spinal trigeminal nucleus(V) - sensory
  • Inferior olivary nucleusafferent fibres to cerebellum
• In pons
  • Cochlear nuclei(VII) - sensory
    • Dorsal cochlear nucleus
    • Ventral cochlear nucleus
  • Vestibular nuclei(VIII) - sensory
  • Salivary nuclei- visceromotor
    • Inferior salivary nucleus (IX)
    • Superior salivary nucleus (VII)
  • Facial nucleus(VII) - motor
  • Abducens nucleus(VI) - motor
  • Trigeminal motor nucleus(V) - motor
  • Spinal trigeminal nucleus(V) - sensory
• In the midbrain(mesencephalon)
  • Mesencephalic trigeminal nucleus(V) - sensory
  • Red nucleus- motor, extrapyramidal
  • Trochlear nucleus(IV) - motor
  • Oculomotor nucleus(III) - motor
  • Edinger-Westphal nucleus(III) - visceromotor

References

• Lennart Heimer, The Human Brain, ISBN 0-387-94227-0

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranial+nerve+nucleus Wikipedia article Cranial nerve nucleus.