ANALYSIS OF THE REGIONAL AND FUNCTIONAL ANATOMY OF THE CRANIAL NERVES: A LITERATURE REVIEW

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.15941002418113

• Palavras-chave: anatomy, functionality, cranial nerve.

• Keywords: anatomy, functionality, cranial nerve.

• Abstract:

  INTRODUCTION: In the field of neurology, the cranial nerve pairs are of fundamental importance in the mechanism of human evolution. There are a total of 12 pairs of nerves and they are closely linked to the maintenance of life and to the sensory, motor and consciousness disorders that individuals may experience during the process of birth, growth, development and senility. OBJECTIVES: To address the morphological and functional issues of the 12 pairs of cranial nerves and understand their correlation with homeostasis and the most obvious pathologies. METHODS: This is an integrative literature review based on the guiding question: "What is the real or apparent origin, pathway, function and clinical relationship of the twelve pairs of cranial nerves?". The descriptors "cranial nerves", "morphology", "functionality" and "nerve anatomy" were used to locate the articles in the databases. Virtual and physical books were included, as well as articles in Portuguese and English published from 2014-2021 and letter-type studies were excluded. The snowball strategy was used to capture new evidence. DISCUSSION: The word nerves is defined as a set of nerve fibers that are joined together from dense connective tissue and organized into bundles that are responsible for transmitting the nerve impulse. From the micro to the macro scale, the twelve pairs of cranial nerves depart from the encephalon with the aim of connecting to sense organs and muscles, mainly in the skull. CONCLUSION: In this study, it was found that the cranial nerves are related to responses to certain stimuli, in addition to some of the pathologies involved. After birth, primitive reflexes have a certain time to appear and disappear, and if they remain, for example, after the correct period, this indicates alterations that need to be investigated. In the case of traumas such as TBI, scales are used to assess the degree of impairment of these nerves and their relationship to the shortness of life. In this way, the human body is seen as a perfect machine and the twelve pairs of nerves are responsible for maintaining this balance or not.
  Keywords: anatomy, functionality, cranial nerve.