Olfactory nerve

The olfactory nerve or olfactory nerve (Latin Olfactus = smell, often plural. Olfactorii Nn ) is the first and shortest of the twelve cranial nerves.

He is responsible as a specially - viszerosensibler nerve for the transmission of olfactory impressions of the olfactory mucosa of the nose to the primary olfactory cortex of the telencephalon ( cerebrum ), allowing the olfactory perception.

Course

The fine fibers of the nerve ( olfactory fibers ) pull the axons of the cells of the olfactory mucosa in the upper part of the nose through the cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone ( ethmoid bone ) to directly above the olfactory bulb. After interconnection to mitral and tuft cells in this structure, the impulses via the olfactory tract to the primary olfactory cortex in the telencephalon are forwarded.

In the cells of the olfactory mucosa is called primary sensory cells, which project without interconnection to the central nervous system. Since by definition the projection location of the first neurons is a cranial nerve nucleus, however, pull the fibers of the olfactory nerve without wiring in a sensory ganglion olfactory bulb, this is partly regarded as a " cranial nerves equivalent".

The olfactory nerve is like the optic nerve ( optic nerve ) no cranial nerve in the strict sense, but an upstream part of the brain. Of the actual cranial nerves, these two also differ in that they do not originate from the brain stem.

Neurological examination

The patient presented different scents, which he shall specify as precisely as possible.