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Cranial Nerve Failure

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Cranial nerve damage Ten pairs of cranial nerves originate in the brain stem continuing to different areas of the face and body. Two pairs of cranial nerves originate in the cerebrum. Cranial nerves travel through specialized holes (foramina) in the skull originated for this purpose. The Abducens nerve offers the precise control needed for specialized movements such as the blink of an eye to a smile resulting from a scant upturning of a lip made possible by the Facial nerve. Damage to any of these 12 specialized nerves can result from trauma, tumors, malformations and disease. Cranial nerves possess either afferent or efferent nerve fibers or both. Afferent neurons convey information to the sensory stimulus in the brain while efferent neurons convey information to muscle …show more content…

Basically, afferent neurons receive information and efferent neurons react to the information. In turn, if an efferent neuron is damaged, the muscle will not react. Injury to an afferent neuron disrupts the relay of sensory information. Injury to a cranial nerve results not only in loss of function, but loss of senses as well. One of the most commonly injured cranial nerves, the first cranial nerve, olfactory nerve. Olfactory nerves are what we rely on for our sense of smell (olfaction), also related to the sense of taste. This is the shortest of all the cranial nerves and there are two located on each side of the face. Olfactory nerves consist of multiple nerve roots, approximately two dozen olfactory nerve and afferent nerve fibers. Two of the twelve cranial nerves, the olfactory and optic, originate at the cerebral portion of the brain. CN1 is located in the nasal mucosa of the upper nasal cavity. The nasal area is not protected by the skull deeming this

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