Science In Action Index and Data

Since the Trigeminal Nerve has come up in a couple of Science In Action posts, here is a little more about it:

The "trigeminal nerve" is really a complex tangle of motor nerves (to the jaw muscles) and sensory nerves (associated with the face, nose, mouth, eyes, and ears). This "wiring harness" of nerves conveys information to and from the brain. One type of information it carries comes from cold stimuli on the palate. (the palate is the roof of your mouth, back to the uvula (that fleshy piece hanging down in the back of your mouth -- a source of many jokes. If you can say "It's a braw bricht moonlicht nicht," you are using your uvula.) Wikipedia article ulvula.

Here is a drawing of the inside of a skull with some more info on this nerve.

More nice pictures.

Drawing not good enough? Here is more than you probably wanted to know, with gross pictures.

This page provides background information for posts on Science In Action.