Anatomy study note · Head and neck

Trigeminal nerve

The fifth and largest cranial nerve: the main sensory nerve of the head and the motor nerve of the muscles of mastication.

Key points

• CN V: largest; sensory face + motor mastication.
• Trigeminal ganglion → V1, V2, V3; motor root joins V3.
• Exits: V1 superior orbital fissure, V2 foramen rotundum, V3 foramen ovale.
• Neuralgia usually V2/V3.
• Trigeminal (V3): 1st arch nerve.
• Motor nuclei: basal lamina. Sensory nuclei: alar lamina.
• HSV-1 dormant in the trigeminal ganglion.
• Nerve: epineurium → perineurium (blood–nerve barrier) → endoneurium.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Action · Course · Histology · Development · Clinical notes

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 12, PDF pp. 1532, 1665–1671, 1685
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 17, PDF pp. 312, 318; ch. 9, PDF pp. 120, 123, 125
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 9, PDF pp. 163–166, 166, 171–172; ch. 16, PDF p. 285

More from the head and neck

• Trochlear nerve
• Veins of the face and scalp
• Ventricles of the brain
• Vertebral and basilar arteries
• Vestibulocochlear nerve
• Vitreous body
• Zygomatic bone
• Abducens nerve
• Accessory nerve
• Anterior cerebral artery
• Aqueous humour
• Arteries of the face

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