Also know as the facial nerve or nervus facialis. It is the motor nerve of the face and originates in the tegmentumof the lower portion of the pons, emerges from the brain at the posterior border of the pons, and leaves the cranial cavity through the internal acoustic meatus where it is joined by the nervus intermedius, transverses the facial canal in the petrous portion of the temporal bone, and exits through the stylomastoid foramen to pass through the parotid gland and separate into many branches to serve the facial muscles.