The ciliary ganglion story - prelude to synapse
The oculomotor nerve carries preganglionic parasympathetic fibers into the orbit. These fibers follow the inferior division of the oculomotor nerve, and branch anterosuperiorly as a short (2-4 mm) motor root of the ciliary ganglion, which lies on the lateral side of the optic nerve, near the apex of the orbit. A sensory root passes from the nasociliary nerve (from V1) to the ciliary ganglion, but of course its fibers pass right through. And, just to spice things up, a sympathetic root passes from the cavernous sinus to the ganglion, and it also passes through (all sympathetics past the superior cervical ganglion are postsynaptic).
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