- Oculomotor nerve
- The oculomotor nerve is the third cranial nerve. (The cranial nerves emerge from or enter the cranium, the skull, as opposed to the spinal nerves which emerge from the vertebral column). The oculomotor nerve is responsible for the nerve supply to muscles about the eye: {{}}The upper eyelid muscle which raises the eyelid; The extraocular muscle which moves the eye inward; and The pupillary muscle which constricts the pupil. Paralysis of the oculomotor nerve results in drooping eyelid (ptosis), deviation of the eyeball outward (and therefore double vision) and a dilated (wide-open) pupil.
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oculomotor nerve n either nerve of the third pair of cranial nerves that are motor nerves with some associated autonomic fibers, arise from the midbrain, supply muscles of the eye except the superior oblique and the lateral rectus with motor fibers, and supply the ciliary body and iris with autonomic fibers by way of the ciliary ganglion called also third cranial nerve* * *
the third cranial nerves (III), which is composed of motor fibres distributed to muscles in and around the eye. Fibres of the parasympathetic system are responsible for altering the size of the pupil and the lens of the eye. Fibres outside the eye run to the upper eyelid and to muscles that turn the eyeball in different directions.* * *
nervus oculomotorius.
Medical dictionary. 2011.