The external laryngeal nerve is the smaller, external branch (ramus externus) of the superior laryngeal nerve. It descends on the larynx, beneath the sternothyroid muscle, to supply the cricothyroid muscle.
It functions to tense the vocal cords by activating the cricothyroid muscle, increasing pitch.
It gives branches to the pharyngeal plexus and the superior portion of the inferior pharyngeal constrictor, and communicates with the superior cardiac nerve behind the common carotid artery.
Read more about External Laryngeal Nerve: Clinical Significance
Famous quotes containing the words external and/or nerve:
“Language disguises the thought; so that from the external form of the clothes one cannot infer the form of the thought they clothe, because the external form of the clothes is constructed with quite another object than to let the form of the body be recognized.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“our nerve filaments twitch with its presence
day and night,
nothing we say has not the husky phlegm of it in the saying,
nothing we do has the quickness, the sureness,
the deep intelligence living at peace would have.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)