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The tympanic nerve (Jacobson's nerve) is a branch of the glossopharyngeal nerve passing through the petrous part of the temporal bone to reach the middle ear. It provides sensory innervation for the middle ear, the Eustachian tube, the parotid gland, and mastoid cells. It also carries parasympathetic fibers destined for the parotid gland.
The temporal bones are overlaid by the sides of the head known as the temples where four of the cranial bones fuse. Each temple is covered by a temporal muscle. The temporal bones house the structures of the ears. The lower seven cranial nerves and the major vessels to and from the brain traverse the temporal bone.
The tympanic plexus is a nerve plexus within the tympanic cavity formed upon the promontory of tympanic cavity by the tympanic nerve (branch of the inferior ganglion of glossopharyngeal nerve (CN IX)), and the superior and inferior caroticotympanic nerves (post-ganglionic sympathetic branches of the internal carotid plexus). [1]
The tympanic part of the temporal bone is a curved plate of bone lying below the squamous part of the temporal bone, in front of the mastoid process, and surrounding the external part of the ear canal. It originates as a separate bone (tympanic bone), which in some mammals stays separate through life.
The floor of the cavity (also called the jugular wall) is narrow, and consists of a thin plate of bone (fundus tympani) which separates the tympanic cavity from the jugular fossa. It presents, near the labyrinthic wall, a small aperture for the passage of the tympanic branch of the glossopharyngeal nerve.
[1] [2] The proximal opening of the canal is situated upon the inferior surface of the petrous part of the temporal bone; its distal opening is situated upon the floor of the tympanic cavity. [1] The canal gives passage to the tympanic nerve (tympanic branch of the glossopharyngeal nerve) (CN IX)) and inferior tympanic artery [3] [2]
Schematic diagram of the human ear [clarification needed] The outer ear includes the pinna, the visible part of the ear, as well as the ear canal, which terminates at the eardrum, also called the tympanic membrane. The pinna serves to focus sound waves through the ear canal toward the eardrum.
Injury to the chorda tympani nerve leads to loss or distortion of taste from anterior 2/3 of tongue. [13] However, taste from the posterior 1/3 of tongue (supplied by the glossopharyngeal nerve) remains intact. The chorda tympani appears to exert a particularly strong inhibitory influence on other taste nerves, as well as on pain fibers in the ...