Nerve · Head

Glossopharyngeal nerve

Nervus glossopharyngeus

The glossopharyngeal nerve does a great deal of sensing and almost no moving. It supplies feeling and taste to the back third of the tongue and lining sensation to the throat, tonsil, soft palate and middle ear — but drives only one muscle, stylopharyngeus, which lifts the throat during a swallow. It leaves the skull through the jugular foramen with the vagus and accessory nerves, then curves forward around stylopharyngeus to reach the tongue. Two further jobs make it worth knowing: it carries the parasympathetic supply that makes the parotid gland produce saliva, and its carotid branch monitors blood pressure and oxygen at the carotid sinus and carotid body in the neck. Because its tympanic branch also supplies the middle ear, a problem at the back of the throat and an ache in the ear can travel down the same nerve.