FUNCTIONS: motor to muscles of facial expression, parasympathetic to submandibular, sublingual, and lacrimal glands, and special sensory (taste).

The facial nerve is primarily a motor nerve, but also carries special sensory (taste) fibers. CN VII emerges between the pons and medulla on the brain and exits the skull through the internal acoustic meatus, facial canal and finally the STYLOMASTOID FORAMEN. Branches of the facial nerve supply the MUSCLES OF FACIAL EXPRESSION, taste to the anterior two thirds of the tongue (chorda tympani), parasympathetic innervation to the submandibular and sublingual glands (chorda tympani), and the lacrimal glands and mucous glands of the soft palate, nose, and paranasal sinuses (greater petrosal nerve).