Carotid sinus nerve

The carotid branch of the glossopharyngeal nerve (carotid sinus nerve or Hering's nerve) is a small branch of the glossopharyngeal nerve (cranial nerve IX) that innervates the carotid sinus, and carotid body.

Branch of glossopharyngeal nerve to carotid sinus
Hypoglossal nerve, cervical plexus and their branches (nerve not labeled, but region is visible)
Details
From	Glossopharyngeal nerve
Identifiers
Latin	ramus sinus carotici nervi glossopharyngei
TA98	A14.2.01.146
TA2	6327
FMA	53488
Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy

Anatomy

Course and relations

It runs downward anterior to the internal carotid artery. It communicates with the vagus nerve and sympathetic trunk before dividing in the angle of the bifurcation of the common carotid artery to innervate the carotid body, and carotid sinus.

Function

It conveys information from the baroreceptors of the carotid sinus to the vasomotor center in the brainstem (in order to mediate blood pressure homeostasis), and from chemoreceptors of the carotid body (mainly conveying information about partial pressures of blood oxygen, and carbon dioxide).

References

This article incorporates text in the public domain from page 909 of the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)

External links

• cranialnerves at The Anatomy Lesson by Wesley Norman (Georgetown University) (IX)
• "9-13". Cranial Nerves. Yale School of Medicine. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03.