Veterinary Gross Anatomy-II

Hypoglossal nerve

HYPOGLOSSAL NERVE (MOTOR)

• It is the motor nerve to the muscles of the tongue. Its fibres arise from the ventral face of the medulla oblongata in a series lateral to the posterior half of the pyramid.
• The filaments converge into three or four bundles that perforate the dura and unite to form the nerve.
• The nerve then emerges through the hypoglossal foramen runs downward and backward related to the atlantooccipital articulation.
• It passes between the tenth and the eleventh nerves, bends downward and forward, passes over the glossopharyngeal nerve and the great cornu of the hyoid bone.
• It gains the lateral face of the hyoglossus muscle and divides into branches to supply the muscles of the tongue.