Frontal nerve at a glance
- What it is
- The frontal nerve is the largest branch of the ophthalmic nerve and supplies the forehead and upper eyelid.
- Location
- It enters the orbit through the superior orbital fissure and runs forward on the levator palpebrae superioris, dividing into the supratrochlear and supra-orbital nerves.
- Function
- It is purely sensory, supplying the skin of the forehead, scalp, upper eyelid and the frontal sinus through its two branches.
- Body system
- Nervous · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA52640 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Branch of CN V1.
- Passes above the common tendinous ring.
Structures next to the frontal nerve
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Superior branch of oculomotor nerve · nervous
- Communicating branch of nasociliary nerve with ciliary ganglion · nervous
- Optic nerve · nervous
- Ciliary ganglion · nervous
- Superior rectus · muscular
- Lacrimal nerve · nervous
- Ophthalmic artery · cardiovascular
- Long ciliary nerve · nervous
- Levator palpebrae superioris · muscular
- Superior oblique · muscular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Frontal nerve (FMA52640). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §12.1 Basic Structure and Function of the Nervous System. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.