# Talk:Accessory nerve

The spinal part (ramus) of the accessory nerve actually enters the skull via the foramen magnum (rather than leaving the skull through that foramen), where it loosely joins with the cranial part (ramus) of that nerve to form the intracranial segment of the accessory nerve.  Then, the fibers in the cranial ramus join with those of the vagus, while the fibers of the spinal ramus continue as a separate bundle.  Finally, both the vagus nerve (with the cranial ramus fibers of the accessory) and the accessory nerve proper leave the skull through the jugular foramen.

I rewrote the article from the stance that accessory nerve has only a spinal component, but didn't want to eliminate the mention of the cranial component altogether. The result is a bit of a mish-mash as I didn't separate out the various classification schemes as clearly as I perhaps could have. I'll be doing another reorganization so that the article speaks only of the spinal accessory nerve, with a section devoted to the traditional description and a note on how that description has been shown to be erroneous. --David Iberri (talk) 22:32, 17 June 2007 (UTC)