The ‘12 Problem’ Revisited

Ask nearly any high school, college or graduate level health professional student how many cranial nerves there are, and the classic response is well known and not correct. Most of us know the long-held problem, the inaccurate textbooks, and are tired of saying ‘well, yes, but not really; memorize them anyway’. Its disingenuous, and we’re weary of the differences between textbook and reality. Here we provide a brief overview of how we historically arrived, a description of what it should be and a solution. This proposal results in 14 cranial nerves, doesn’t upset the numbering system and is easily adoptable and in agreement with Terminología Anatómica. none. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.