
Cranial nerve | Sensory innervation | Motor innervation |
CN V trigeminal mandibular branch (V 3) | Sensation to the lining of the buccal ca ... | Muscles of mastication Mylohyoid and ant ... |
CN VII facial | Taste to the anterior two-thirds of the ... | Muscles of facial expression. Lip closur ... |
CN IX glossopharyngeal | Receives input from tonsils, pharynx, po ... | Stylopharyngeus elevates pharynx and lar ... |
CN X vagus | Sensation to the pharynx, larynx, trache ... | Muscles of the velopharyngeal mechanism ... |
Cranial nerve | Sensory innervation |
---|---|
CN IX glossopharyngeal | Receives input from tonsils, pharynx, posterior tongue Supplies taste to the posterior one-third of the tongue |
CN X vagus | Sensation to the pharynx, larynx, trachea |
CN XI accessory | No sensory component |
CN XII hypoglossal | No sensory component |
What nerve is responsible for swallowing?
The vagus nerve, which runs from the brain into the body, connects to the heart, lungs, intestines, and several muscles involved with swallowing. It plays a role in several body functions that control heart rate, speech, the gag reflex, sweating, and digestion.
What cranial nerve is involved in smiling?
Which cranial nerve is responsible for smiling? cranial nerve VII The most important nerve controlling muscles of facial expression, including those involved in a smile, is unsurprisingly called the facial nerve, also known as cranial nerve VII.
What nerve controls swallowing?
The following cranial nerves are involved in swallowing:
- Trigeminal (cranial nerve V)
- Facial (cranial nerve VII)
- Glossopharyngeal (cranial nerve IX)
- Vagus (cranial nerve X)
- Hypoglossal nerve (cranial nerve XII)
What are the ten cranial nerves?
Cranial nerves; CN 0 – Terminal; CN I – Olfactory; CN II – Optic; CN III – Oculomotor; CN IV – ...

How many cranial nerves are involved in swallowing?
SixSome of them are motor, some are sensory and some are mixed nerves, containing both sensory and motor fibers. Six of them are involved in speech and swallowing, and are therefore very important to the speech, language pathologist. CN V is the trigeminal nerve.
What cranial nerve is used for swallowing?
The vagal nerve (VN), the tenth cranial nerve, provides both motor and sensory innervation, and plays an important role in the pharyngeal phase of swallowing [4, 6].
What cranial nerve is affected with difficulty swallowing?
Glossopharyngeal nerve lesions produce difficulty swallowing; impairment of taste over the posterior one-third of the tongue and palate; impaired sensation over the posterior one-third of the tongue, palate, and pharynx; an absent gag reflex; and dysfunction of the parotid gland.
Does vagus nerve affect swallowing?
The vagus nerve is a very important nerve which controls controls voice production, sensation of the throat and swallowing, amongst many other body functions.
Which cranial nerve is most likely to be damaged in a patient experiencing issues with swallowing or manipulating food in the mouth using the tongue?
The hypoglossal nerve innervates the muscles of the tongue and is involved in tongue movements during speech, food manipulation, and swallowing.
Which cranial nerves are most involved in speech, swallowing, or hearing?
The trigeminal nerve is the first. It is the most massive of the cranial nerves. The trigeminal nerve is necessary for several elements of speech,...
What is the largest of the cranial nerves and the most important sensory nerve of the face?
Nerve trigeminal nerve V, also known as the fifth cranial nerve, arises from the brainstem through the cerebellum and reaches the face through the...
Which cranial nerves are involved in the involuntary swallowing reflex?
The trigeminal (V), facial (VII), glossopharyngeal (IX), vagus (X), accessory (XI), and hypoglossal nerves are the cranial nerves linked with swall...
Does the brain stem control hearing?
The brainstem is the origin of ten of the twelve pairs of cranial nerves that regulate hearing, eye movement, facial sensations, taste, swallowing,...
What cranial nerve is involved in chewing?
The trigeminal nerve is in charge of sensory enervation of the face as well as motor enervation of the masticatory muscles (chewing). It is compose...
What are the functions of the cranial nerves?
Their functions are usually categorized as being either sensory or motor. Sensory nerves are involved with your senses, such as smell, hearing, and touch. Motor nerves control the movement and function of muscles or glands. Keep reading to learn more about each of the 12 cranial nerves and how they function.
What is the function of the oculomotor nerve?
The oculomotor nerve has two different motor functions: muscle function and pupil response. Muscle function. Your oculomotor nerve provides motor function to four of the six muscles around your eyes. These muscles help your eyes move and focus on objects.
How many cranial nerves are there?
What are cranial nerves? Your cranial nerves are pairs of nerves that connect your brain to different parts of your head, neck, and trunk. There are 12 of them, each named for their function or structure. Each nerve also has a corresponding Roman numeral between I and XII.
How many divisions does the trigeminal nerve have?
The trigeminal nerve has three divisions, which are:
Which nerve is located in the ophthalmic, maxillary, and mandibular divisions?
The sensory root of your trigeminal nerve branches into the ophthalmic, maxillary, and mandibular divisions. The motor root of your trigeminal nerve passes below the sensory root and is only distributed into the mandibular division. VI. Abducens nerve.
Which nerve transmits sensory information to your brain regarding smells that you encounter?
The olfactory nerve transmits sensory information to your brain regarding smells that you encounter.
Where does the trigeminal nerve originate?
It also controls the movement of muscles within your jaw and ear. The trigeminal nerve originates from a group of nuclei — which is a collection of nerve cells — in the midbrain and medulla regions of your brainstem.
What is the negative of mouth?
Negative: weakness of the structures of the mouth
Where do you pass bolus?
Pass the bolus from the esophagus to the stomach.
Which part of the trachea is adducting when swallowing?
the larynx moving upward and the epiglottis tipping downward along with the vocal cords adducting to close off the trachea while swallowing.
Can you drink water while taking medication?
The patient can have water but no other liquids. No water consumption during meals or while taking medications. The patient can be give water up to 30 minutes before a meal.
What muscles are involved in swallowing?
Cranial Nerves and Muscles Involved in Swallowing. Swallowing occurs in three sequential phases, all requiring the careful coordination of muscles in the mouth, pharynx (your throat), larynx (your voice box), and esophagus (the tube that carries food from your throat to your stomach). These muscles are all under the control of a group ...
Why does the windpipe close off?
This closing off of the "windpipe" prevents food and liquid particles from entering the lungs. If the windpipe does not properly close off, or if swallowing is not well coordinated, problems such as choking can occur.
How to strengthen muscles in swallowing?
In addition, swallowing exercises like the supraglottic swallow or Mendelsohn's maneuver can help strengthen your muscles involved in swallowing. 6 These oral movement exercises and other strategies like using a cup, straw, or spoon can further be helpful.
What happens when you chew food?
The act of chewing changes the food into a softer and more slippery food bolus that is suitable and safe for swallowing. As the swallowing reflex advances through its different phases, the nerves involved in swallowing trigger the reflexive closing of the larynx and the epiglottis.
What happens if you swallow too much food?
Another complication of swallowing problems, aspiration pneumonia, can happen if food enters the lungs. 3 This may happen as a result of a stroke or other neurological disorders. Lastly, malnutrition and dehydration may occur as a result of swallowing difficulties.
How does stroke affect swallowing?
How Swallowing Is Affected by Stroke. As you can see, there are multiple areas of the central nervous system which, if affected by a stroke or another neurological condition like multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, or dementia, could disrupt the ability to swallow. 3 .
Where does swallowing take place?
The voluntary initiation of swallowing takes place in special areas of the cerebral cortex of the brain called the precentral gyrus (also called the primary motor area), posterior-inferior gyrus, and the frontal gyrus. Information from these areas converges in the swallowing center in the medulla, which is part of the brainstem.
What is the pharyngeal phase?
The pharyngeal phase incorporates, as its functional part, the oral phase dynamics already in course. The pharyngeal phase starts by action of the pharyngeal plexus, composed of the glossopharyngeal (IX), vagus (X) and accessory (XI) nerves, with involvement of the trigeminal (V), facial (VII), glossopharyngeal (IX) and the hypoglossal (XII) nerves.
Which nerve is located on the side of the cervical plexus?
The cervical plexus (C1, C2) and the hypoglossal nerve on each side form the ansa cervicalis, from where a pathway of cervical origin goes to the geniohyoid muscle, which acts in the elevation of the hyoid-laryngeal complex.
Is swallowing a motor process?
Background: Swallowing is a motor process with several discordances and a very difficult neurophysiological study. Maybe that is the reason for the scarcity of papers about it.

Overview
- Cranial nerves are pairs of nerves that connect your brain to different parts of your head, neck, a…
What are cranial nerves and how many are there? - Your cranial nerves are pairs of nerves that connect your brain to different parts of your head, ne…
Their functions are usually categorized as being either sensory or motor. Sensory nerves are involved with your senses, such as smell, hearing, and touch. Motor nerves control the movement and function of muscles or glands.
Olfactory nerve
- The olfactory nerve sends sensory information to your brain about smells that you encounter.
When you inhale molecules with a scent, known as aromatic molecules, they dissolve in a moist lining at the roof of your nasal cavity. - This lining is called the olfactory epithelium. It stimulates receptors that generate nerve impulse…
From the olfactory bulb, nerves pass into your olfactory tract, which is located below the frontal lobe of your brain. Nerve signals are then sent to areas of your brain concerned with memory and recognition of smells.
I Optic nerve
- The optic nerve is the sensory nerve that involves vision.
When light enters your eye, it comes into contact with special receptors in your retina called rods and cones. Rods are found in large numbers and are highly sensitive to light. They’re more specialized for black and white or night vision. - Cones are present in smaller numbers. They have a lower light sensitivity than rods and are mor…
The information received by your rods and cones is sent from your retina to your optic nerve. Once inside your skull, both of your optic nerves meet to form something called the optic chiasm. At the optic chiasm, nerve fibers from half of each retina form two separate optic tracts.
II Oculomotor nerve
- The oculomotor nerve has two different motor functions: muscle function and pupil response.
Muscle function. Your oculomotor nerve provides motor function to four of the six muscles around your eyes. These muscles help your eyes move and focus on objects. - Pupil response. It also helps to control the size of your pupil as it responds to light.
This nerve originates in the front part of your midbrain, which is a part of your brainstem. It moves forward from that area until it reaches the area of your eye sockets.
I Trochlear nerve
- The trochlear nerve controls your superior oblique muscle. This is the muscle that’s in charge of …
It emerges from the back part of your midbrain. Like your oculomotor nerve, it moves forward until it reaches your eye sockets, where it stimulates the superior oblique muscle.
Trigeminal nerve
- The trigeminal nerve is the largest of your cranial nerves and has both sensory and motor functi…
The trigeminal nerve has three divisions, which are: - Ophthalmic. The ophthalmic division sends sensory information from the upper part of your fac…
Maxillary. This division communicates sensory information from the middle part of your face, including your cheeks, upper lip, and nasal cavity.
V Abducens nerve
- The abducens nerve controls another muscle that’s associated with eye movement called the lat…
This nerve, also called the abducens nerve, starts in the pons region of your brainstem. It eventually enters your eye socket, where it controls the lateral rectus muscle.
VI Facial nerve
- The facial nerve provides both sensory and motor functions, including:
moving muscles used for facial expressions as well as some muscles in your jaw - providing a sense of taste for most of your tongue
supplying glands in your head or neck area, such as salivary glands and tear-producing glands
VII Vestibulocochlear nerve
- Your vestibulocochlear nerve has sensory functions involving hearing and balance. It consists o…
Cochlear portion. Specialized cells within your ear detect vibrations from sound based on the sound’s loudness and pitch. This generates nerve impulses that are sent to the cochlear nerve. - Vestibular portion. Another set of special cells in this portion can track both linear and rotationa…
The cochlear and vestibular portions of your vestibulocochlear nerve originate in separate areas of the brain.
I Glossopharyngeal nerve
- The glossopharyngeal nerve has both motor and sensory functions, including:
sending sensory information from your sinuses, the back of your throat, parts of your inner ear, and the back part of your tongue - providing a sense of taste for the back part of your tongue
stimulating voluntary movement of a muscle in the back of your throat called the stylopharyngeus
Vagus nerve
- The vagus nerve is a very diverse nerve. It has both sensory and motor functions, including:
conveying sensation information from your ear canal and parts of your throat - sending sensory information from organs in your chest and trunk, such as your heart and intesti…
allowing motor control of muscles in your throat
X Accessory nerve
- Your accessory nerve is a motor nerve that controls the muscles in your neck. These muscles all…
It’s divided into two parts: spinal and cranial. The spinal portion originates in the upper part of your spinal cord. The cranial part starts in your medulla oblongata.
XI Hypoglossal nerve
- Your hypoglossal nerve is the 12th cranial nerve. It’s responsible for the movement of most of th…
It starts in the medulla oblongata and moves down into the jaw, where it reaches the tongue. - How can I keep my cranial nerves healthy?
You can help keep your cranial nerves healthy by following practices that keep your body, cardiovascular system, and central nervous system healthy.