The lesser petrosal nerve is the visceral motor component of the glossopharyngeal nerve (CN IX), carrying parasympathetic fibres from the tympanic plexus to the parotid gland.
After arising in the tympanic plexus, lesser petrosal nerve passes from the temporal bone into the middle cranial fossa via hiatus for lesser petrosal nerve. It travels across the floor of the middle cranial fossa, then exits the skull via foramen ovale to reach the infratemporal fossa. The fibres synapse in the otic ganglion, and post-ganglionic fibres then travel briefly with the auriculotemporal nerve (a branch of V3) before entering the body of the parotid gland.
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