Anatomy study note · Head and neck

Optic nerve

The second cranial nerve (sensory): the nerve of sight, made of the axons of the ganglion cells of the retina.

Key points

• CN II: retinal ganglion cell axons.
• Optic canal → chiasma (nasal fibres cross) → tract → lateral geniculate → radiation → occipital cortex.
• Chiasma lesion (pituitary tumour) = bitemporal hemianopia.
• Tract/radiation lesion = homonymous hemianopia.
• Raised ICP → papilloedema.
• Optic stalk + ganglion cell axons → optic nerve.
• Optic nerve myelin: oligodendrocytes (CNS).
• Affected in MS.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Relations · Course · Histology · Development · Clinical notes

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 12, PDF pp. 1580–1582, 1663, 1683–1684
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 19, PDF pp. 353, 355, 357
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 9, PDF pp. 163–164; ch. 21, PDF p. 385

More from the head and neck

• Orbicularis oculi
• Orbicularis oris
• Palate
• Palatine tonsil
• Palatopharyngeus
• Parathyroid glands
• Parietal bone
• Parietal lobe
• Parotid gland
• Pharyngeal constrictors
• Pharynx
• Phrenic nerve

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