Posterior auricular nerve
nerve of the head
The posterior auricular nerve is a nerve of the head. It is a branch of the facial nerve (CN VII). It communicates with branches from the vagus nerve, the great auricular nerve, and the lesser occipital nerve. Its auricular branch supplies the posterior auricular muscle, the intrinsic muscles of the auricle, and gives sensation to the auricle. Its occipital branch supplies the occipitalis muscle.
Structure
The posterior auricular nerve arises from the facial nerve (CN VII). It is the first branch outside of the skull. This origin is close to the stylomastoid foramen. It runs upward in front of the mastoid process. It is joined by a branch from the auricular branch of the vagus nerve (CN X).
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This entry incorporates text from “Posterior auricular nerve” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.