Fig. 7

The glossopharyngeal nerve. a Skull base axial CT scan; right temporal bone, bone window. The image shows the foramen ovale, the foramen spinosum, the canaliculus innominatus (ci) of Arnold and the spheno-temporal junction, all of which are possible exit pathways of the lesser petrosal nerve. b Coronal fast spin-echo contrast-enhanced T1-weighted brain MRI, left side skull base. The images show the relationship between the foramen ovale (fo) and the V₃ mandibular nerve and otic ganglion complex (arrow). et: Eustachian tube; lpm: lateral pterygoid muscle; mpm: medial pterygoid muscle; tvp: tensor veli palatini muscle. c Axial contrast-enhanced CT scan of the neck, soft tissues window. Glossopharyngeal nerve and auriculotemporal nerve. Just below the foramen ovale, the glossopharyngeal nerve fibres leave the otic ganglion to merge with the auriculotemporal nerve, a branch of the trigeminal nerve (the nerve pathway is represented by dashed yellow lines). Then, the nerve travels posteriorly in the parapharyngeal space to embrace the middle meningeal artery (mma), crosses along the medial edge of the condylar apophysis of the mandible (cam) and enters the parotid gland (pg). lpm: lateral pterygoid muscle; ms: maxillary sinus