The Sixth or Abducent Nerve

The abducent nerve (N. abducens) emerges from the brain behind the pons and just external to the pyramid (Fig. ). It passes forward across the pons, pierces the dura mater, and accompanies the third and ophthalmic nerves, below which it emerges through the foramen lacerum orbitale. In the orbit it divides into two branches; the larger of these enters the external rectus, the smaller supplies the superior and external parts of the retractor muscle of the eyeball. Within the cranium it receives filaments from the carotid plexus of the sympathetic.

The fibers of the abducent nerve are axones of the large multipolar cells of the abducent nucleus which is situated beneath the eminentia teres of the floor of the fourth ventricle. The nucleus lies within the loop formed by the fibers of origin of the facial nerve. It is connected with (a) the anterior olive; (b) the oculomotor nucleus of the opposite side; (c) the motor area of the cerebral cortex by means of the pyramidal tract of the opposite side.