Spinal accessory nerve

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Nerve: Accessory nerve
Plan of upper portions of glossopharyngeal, vagus, and accessory nerves.
[[Image:|250px|center|]]
Latin	nervus accessorius
Gray's	subject #206 913
Innervates	sternocleidomastoid muscle, trapezius muscle
From
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MeSH	A08.800.800.120.060

The accessory nerve (or Spinal accessory nerve) is the eleventh of twelve cranial nerves. It leaves the cranium through the jugular foramen along with the glossopharyngeal nerve (IX) and vagus nerve (X).

Parts

Traditional descriptions distinguish two parts to the accessory nerve:

• A spinal part, that innervates the muscles around the neck -- specifically, the sternocleidomastoid muscle (sternomastoid) and trapezius muscle on the ipsilateral side.

• A cranial part, made of rootlets that quickly combine with the vagus nerve.The cranial part of nerve XI can be thought of doing the exact same things as the vagus. In fact, a recent reinvestigation of human material fails to detect any connection of this cranial part with the spinal part, reassigns it entirely to the vagus nerve and dismisses altogether the existence of cranial roots for the accessory nerve.

Testing the accessory nerve

Getting a person to shrug their shoulders while you push down tests trapezius. When a person turns their head, especially against force, sternocleidomastoid should be prominent.

Additional images

Dura mater and its processes exposed by removing part of the right half of the skull, and the brain.

Hind- and mid-brains; postero-lateral view.

The nerves of the scalp, face, and side of neck.

Upper part of medulla spinalis and hind- and mid-brains; posterior aspect, exposed in situ.

Course and distribution of the glossopharyngeal, vagus, and accessory nerves.

Plan of the cervical plexus.

Side of neck, showing chief surface markings.

See also

• Spinal accessory nucleus

External links

• MedEd at Loyola GrossAnatomy/h_n/cn/cn1/cn11.htm
• Norman/Georgetown lesson6
• SUNY Labs 28:13-0115
• Cranial Nerves at Yale 11-1

Nerves of head and neck: the cranial nerves

I-IV: olfactory - optic - oculomotor - trochlear

V: trigeminal: trigeminal ganglion
V1: ophthalmic: lacrimal - frontal (supratrochlear, supraorbital) - nasociliary (long root of ciliary, long ciliary, infratrochlear, posterior ethmoidal, anterior ethmoidal) - ciliary ganglion (short ciliary)
V2: maxillary: middle meningeal - in the pterygopalatine fossa (zygomatic, zygomaticotemporal, zygomaticofacial, sphenopalatine, posterior superior alveolar)
in the infraorbital canal/infraorbital nerve (middle superior alveolar, anterior superior alveolar)
on the face (inferior palpebral, external nasal, superior labial, infraorbital plexus) - pterygopalatine ganglion (deep petrosal, nerve of pterygoid canal)
branches of distribution (palatine, nasopalatine, pharyngeal)
V3: mandibular: nervus spinosus - medial pterygoid - anterior (masseteric, deep temporal, buccal, lateral pterygoid)
posterior (auriculotemporal, lingual, inferior alveolar, mylohyoid, mental) - otic ganglion - submandibular ganglion

VI: abducens

VII: facial: nervus intermedius - geniculate - inside facial canal (greater petrosal, nerve to the stapedius, chorda tympani)
at exit from stylomastoid foramen (posterior auricular, digastric - stylohyoid)
on face (temporal, zygomatic, buccal, mandibular, cervical)

VIII: vestibulocochlear: cochlear (striae medullares, lateral lemniscus) - vestibular

IX: glossopharyngeal: fasciculus solitarius - nucleus ambiguus - ganglia (superior, petrous) - tympanic - carotid sinus

X: vagus: ganglia (jugular, nodose) - Alderman's nerve - in the neck (pharyngeal branch, superior laryngeal ext and int, recurrent laryngeal)
in the thorax (pulmonary branches, esophageal plexus) - in the abdomen (gastric plexuses, celiac plexus, gastric plexus)

XI: accessory XII: hypoglossal

[[Category:Cranial nerves]

de:Nervus accessorius fr:Nerf accessoire lt:Priedinis nervas nl:Nervus accessorius no:Nervus accessorius pt:Nervo acessório tl:Aksesori na litid