Lingual nerve

Nerve: Lingual nerve
Distribution of the maxillary and mandibular nerves, and the submaxillary ganglion.
The mouth cavity. The apex of the tongue is turned upward, and on the right side a superficial dissection of its under surface has been made.
Latin	nervus lingualis
Gray's	subject #200 895
Innervates	tongue
From	mandibular nerve

The lingual nerve is a branch of the mandibular nerve (CN V₃), itself a branch of the trigeminal nerve, which supplies sensory innervation to the tongue. It also carries fibers from the facial nerve, which return taste information from the anterior two thirds of the tongue.

Function

The lingual nerve supplies somatic innervation to the mucous membrane of the anterior two-thirds of the tongue.

It also carries nerve fibers that do not originate from the trigeminal nerve, including the chorda tympani nerve, which provides special sensation (taste) to the anterior part of the tongue as well as parasympathetic and sympathetic fibers.

The submandibular ganglion is suspended by two nerve filaments from the lingual nerve.

Path

The lingual nerve lies at first beneath the lateral pterygoid muscle, medial to and in front of the inferior alveolar nerve, and is occasionally joined to this nerve by a branch which may cross the internal maxillary artery.

The chorda tympani (a branch of the facial nerve, CN VII) joins it at an acute angle here, carrying taste fibers from the anterior two thirds of the tongue and parasympathetic fibers to the submandibular ganglion.

The nerve then passes between the medial pterygoid muscle and the ramus of the mandible, and crosses obliquely to the side of the tongue over the Constrictor pharyngis superior and Styloglossus, and then between the Hyoglossus and deep part of the submandibular gland; it finally runs from laterally to medially inferiorly crossing the duct of the submandibular gland, and along the tongue to its tip becoming the sublingual nerve, lying immediately beneath the mucous membrane.

See also

• Lingual branches of hypoglossal nerve

Additional images

Mandible of human embryo 24 mm. long. Outer aspect.	Mandibular division of the trifacial nerve.	Mandibular division of trifacial nerve, seen from the middle line.	Plan of the facial and intermediate nerves and their communication with other nerves.
Hypoglossal nerve, cervical plexus, and their branches.	Sympathetic connections of the submaxillary and superior cervical ganglia.

References

External links

• SUNY Figs 27:03-05
• MedEd at Loyola GrossAnatomy/h_n/cn/cn1/cnb3.htm
• lesson4 at The Anatomy Lesson by Wesley Norman (Georgetown University) (mandibularnerve)
• cranialnerves at The Anatomy Lesson by Wesley Norman (Georgetown University) (V)
• Roche Lexicon - illustrated navigator, at Elsevier 05287.011-1

This article was originally based on an entry from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy. As such, some of the information contained herein may be outdated.

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