Anatomy study note · Head and neck

Glossopharyngeal nerve

The ninth cranial nerve (mixed). It helps swallowing, promotes parotid secretion, carries sensation and taste from the pharynx and posterior third of the tongue, and carries afferents from the carotid sinus and body.

Key points

• CN IX: jugular foramen.
• Only muscle: stylopharyngeus.
• Parotid secretion (via otic ganglion).
• Posterior 1/3 tongue: taste + sensation.
• Carotid sinus and body afferents.
• IX: 3rd arch → stylopharyngeus, posterior ⅓ tongue.
• Motor nuclei: basal lamina. Sensory nuclei: alar lamina.
• IX: carotid sinus baroreceptor.
• Nerve: epineurium → perineurium (blood–nerve barrier) → endoneurium.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Course · Branches · Histology · Development

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 12, PDF pp. 1636–1637, 1677–1678, 1687
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 17, PDF pp. 312, 318; ch. 9, PDF p. 125; ch. 12, PDF p. 170
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 9, PDF pp. 163–166, 166, 171–172; ch. 11, PDF p. 205

More from the head and neck

• Hippocampus
• Hyoglossus
• Hyoid bone
• Hypoglossal nerve
• Hypothalamus
• Inferior oblique
• Inferior rectus
• Insula
• Internal capsule
• Internal carotid artery
• Internal jugular vein
• Iris

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