The names and sequence of the cranial nerves should now be familiar.

Although these nerves lack the relative uniformity of makeup and distribution pattern that is found with the spinal nerves, it is possible to arrange them in three groupings: those exclusively concerned with special senses (the olfactory, optic, and vestibulocochlear nerves); those that supply head muscles of somitic origin (the oculomotor, trochlear, abducent, and hypoglossal nerves); and those primarily concerned with structures of pharyngeal arch origin (the trigeminal, facial, glossopharyngeal, vagus, and accessory nerves). However, it is probably more convenient to deal with them in numerical — that is, in rostrocaudal—sequence.