Cranial nerve nuclei

Last revised by Rohit Sharma on 19 Feb 2024

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Hacking C, Sharma R, Gaillard F, et al. Cranial nerve nuclei. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 20 Apr 2024) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-80978

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-80978

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/80978

rID:

80978

Article created:

11 Aug 2020, Craig Hacking ◉ ◈

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Craig Hacking had no recorded disclosures.

View Craig Hacking's current disclosures

Last revised:

19 Feb 2024, Rohit Sharma ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Rohit Sharma had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Rohit Sharma's current disclosures

Revisions:

12 times, by 4 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Systems:

Central Nervous System

Sections:

Anatomy

The cranial nerve nuclei are a series of bilateral grey matter motor and sensory nuclei located in the midbrain, pons and medulla that are the collections of afferent and efferent cell bodies for many of the cranial nerves.

Some nuclei are small and contribute to a single cranial nerve, such as some of the motor nuclei. Other nuclei, however, are long and span several regions of the brainstem contributing to several cranial nerves. Several motor and sensory nuclei form longitudinal columns in the brainstem, leading to some authors describing them as single discontinuous longitudinal nuclear columns rather than the more numerous individual separate nuclei. Three long discontinuous efferent columns have been described: somatic, branchiomotor and parasympathetic.

Extensive interconnections exist between many of these nuclei, as well as with other brainstem nuclei and white matter tracts, such as the medial lemniscus and medial longitudinal fasciculus.