The dorsal nucleus of the vagus nerve (or posterior motor nucleus of vagus) is a cranial nerve nucleus for the vagus nerve in the medulla that lies under the floor of the fourth ventricle. It mostly serves parasympathetic vagal functions in the gastrointestinal tract, lungs, and other thoracic and abdominal vagal innervations. The cell bodies for the preganglionic parasympathetic vagal neurons that innervate the heart reside in the nucleus ambiguus.
Additional cell bodies are found in the nucleus ambiguus, which give rise to the branchial efferent motor fibers of the vagus nerve (CN X) terminating in the laryngeal, pharyngeal muscles, and musculus uvulae.
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Section of the medulla oblongata at about the middle of the olive.
The cranial nerve nuclei schematically represented; dorsal view. Motor nuclei in red; sensory in blue.
Primary terminal nuclei of the afferent (sensory) cranial nerves schematically represented; lateral view.
