Activity 2
Your patient recently had a viral infection and now she cannot move the muscles on the right side of her face. In addition, she is experiencing a loss of taste and a dry mouth, and she cannot close her right eye. Which cranial nerves have been affected by the viral infection?
In this case, wherein the patient cannot close her right eye and is unable to move other muscles on the right side of her face, the motor function is affected. Moreover, since the patient is also experiencing a loss of taste and a dry mouth, the sensory function is affected as well. Therefore, we can infer that the viral infection has affected the facial nerve VII of the patient, which is the cranial nerve responsible for providing motor innervation to facial muscles and also contains sensory components.