The cranial nerves are the nerves that emerge directly from the brain. Cranial nerves provide motor and sensory innervations to the head and neck. Cranial motor nerves innervate muscles that control the eyes, head movements, gill muscles and muscles involved in feeding. Some of the cranial nerves have sensory ganglia which lie outside of the brain. Cranial sensory nerves such as the olfactory and optic nerves relay sensory information to higher brain areas where the information is processed.

Click on a nerve below to read more.