suboccipital nerve


sub·oc·cip·i·tal nerve

[TA] dorsal ramus of the first cervical nerve, passing through the suboccipital triangle and sending branches to the rectus capitis posterior major and minor, obliquus capitis superior and inferior, rectus capitis lateralis, and semispinalis capitis; the first cervical spinal nerve is generally considered to have only motor fibers, but the suboccipital nerve receives sensory fibers for proprioception via a communicating branch from the second cervical spinal nerve. Synonym(s): nervus suboccipitalis [TA]

sub·oc·cip·i·tal nerve

(sŭb'ok-sip'i-tăl nĕrv) [TA] Dorsal ramus of the first cervical nerve, passing through the suboccipital triangle and sending branches to the rectus capitis posterior major and minor, obliquus capitis superior and inferior, rectus capitis lateralis, and semispinalis capitis; the first cervical spinal nerve is generally considered to have only motor fibers, but the suboccipital nerve receives sensory fibers for proprioception through a communicating branch from the second cervical spinal nerve.
Synonym(s): nervus suboccipitalis [TA] .

suboccipital nerve

A motor nerve composed of axons from the dorsal ramus of spinal nerve C1. It leaves the spinal canal between the skull and the first cervical vertebra, and it innervates the four small muscles of the suboccipital triangle, deep in the back of the neck at the base of the skull. See also: nerve