Path
Exits the skull through the internal acoustic meatus as part of the facial nerve, then it travels through the middle ear, where it runs from posterior to anterior across the tympanic membrane. It passes between the malleus and the incus, on the medial surface of the neck of the malleus.
The nerve continues through the petrotympanic fissure, after which it emerges from the skull into the infratemporal fossa. It soon combines with the larger lingual nerve, a branch of the mandibular nerve
The fibers of the chorda tympani travel with the lingual nerve to the submandibular ganglion.
Here, the preganglionic fibers of the chorda tympani synapse with postganglionic fibers which go on to innervate the submandibular and sublingual salivary glands.
Special sensory (taste) fibers also extend from the chorda tympani to the anterior 2/3 of the tongue via the lingual nerve.
Read more about this topic: Chorda Tympani
Famous quotes containing the word path:
“... my aim is now, as it has been for the past ten years, to make myself a true woman, one worthy of the name, and one who will unshrinkingly follow the path which God marks out, one whose aim is to do all of the good she can in the world and not be one of the delicate little dolls or the silly fools who make up the bulk of American women, slaves to society and fashion.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)
“My mother always used to say, “There is no path to peace. Peace is the path.””
—Donald Freed, U.S. screenwriter, and Arnold M. Stone. Robert Altman. Richard Nixon (Philip Baker Hall)
“Ai! ai! we do worse! We are in a fix! And you’re out, Death let
you out, Death had the Mercy, you’re done with your century, done with God, done with the path thru it—”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)