Contents
The jugular foramen may be subdivided into three compartments, each with their own contents.
- The anterior compartment transmits the inferior petrosal sinus.
- The intermediate transmits the glossopharyngeal, vagus, and accessory nerves (aka cranial nerves number IX, X, and XI respectively).
- The posterior transmits the sigmoid sinus (becoming the internal jugular vein) and some meningeal branches from the occipital and ascending pharyngeal arteries.
An alternative imaging based subclassification exists, delineated by the jugular spine which is a bony ridge partially separating the jugular foramen into two parts:
- The smaller, anteromedial, "pars nervosa" compartment contains CN IX, Jacobson nerve (or the tympanic nerve, a branch of CN IX), and receives the venous return from inferior petrosal sinus.
- The larger, posterolateral, "pars vascularis" compartment contains CN X, CN XI, Arnold's nerve (or the auricular branch of CN X involved in the Arnold's reflex, where external auditory meatus stimulation causes cough), jugular bulb, and posterior meningeal branch of ascending pharyngeal artery.
Read more about this topic: Jugular Foramen
Famous quotes containing the word contents:
“Yet to speak of the whole world as metaphor
Is still to stick to the contents of the mind
And the desire to believe in a metaphor.
It is to stick to the nicer knowledge of
Belief, that what it believes in is not true.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“How often we must remember the art of the surgeon, which, in replacing the broken bone, contents itself with releasing the parts from false position; they fly into place by the action of the muscles. On this art of nature all our arts rely.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“To be, contents his natural desire;
He asks no Angel’s wing, no Seraph’s fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)