Cranial Nerves Mnemonic Flashcards
This is a free 20-card deck for the 12 cranial nerves. Three cards teach the classic mnemonics for the order and for sensory, motor or both. Twelve cards cover one nerve each, and five cards cover the patterns and reflexes that exams love to ask about. Say the answer out loud before you flip each card.
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All 20 cards in this deck
The full deck is listed below, front and back. Answers stay collapsed until you open them, so you can quiz yourself as you scroll.
1. What is the mnemonic for the names of the cranial nerves in order?
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On Old Olympus' Towering Top, A Finn And German Viewed A Hop. That gives olfactory (I), optic (II), oculomotor (III), trochlear (IV), trigeminal (V), abducens (VI), facial (VII), vestibulocochlear (VIII), glossopharyngeal (IX), vagus (X), accessory (XI), hypoglossal (XII).
2. What is the second popular mnemonic for the names in order?
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Oh Oh Oh To Touch And Feel Very Good Velvet, Ah. The first ten words give O, O, O, T, T, A, F, V, G, V for nerves I to X, and the final Ah gives A and H for accessory and hypoglossal. Use whichever one you remember, but do not mix them.
3. What mnemonic tells you if each nerve is sensory, motor or both?
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Some Say Marry Money, But My Brother Says Big Brains Matter More. S means sensory, M motor and B both. So I, II and VIII are sensory; III, IV, VI, XI and XII are motor; and V, VII, IX and X are both.
4. CN I: name and function?
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The olfactory nerve carries the sense of smell. It is sensory only. Its fibers pass through the holes of the cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone, from the nose up to the olfactory bulb.
5. CN II: name and function?
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The optic nerve carries vision from the retina to the brain. It is sensory only. It is also the afferent (incoming) limb of the pupillary light reflex.
6. CN III: name and function?
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The oculomotor nerve supplies most of the muscles that move the eye, and the muscle that lifts the upper eyelid. It also carries parasympathetic fibers that constrict the pupil. It is mainly motor.
7. CN IV: name and function?
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The trochlear nerve supplies one muscle, the superior oblique, which turns the eye down when it looks toward the nose and rotates it inward. It is motor, and it is the only cranial nerve that leaves from the back of the brainstem.
8. CN V: name and function?
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The trigeminal nerve is both sensory and motor. It carries touch, pain and temperature from the face in three divisions: ophthalmic (V1), maxillary (V2) and mandibular (V3). The mandibular division also moves the chewing muscles.
9. CN VI: name and function?
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The abducens nerve supplies the lateral rectus, which turns the eye outward (abduction). It is motor. The name helps: abducens leads the eye away from the nose.
10. CN VII: name and function?
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The facial nerve is both sensory and motor. It moves the muscles of facial expression, carries taste from the front two thirds of the tongue, and sends parasympathetic fibers to the tear glands and to two of the salivary glands.
11. CN VIII: name and function?
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The vestibulocochlear nerve carries hearing (cochlear part) and balance (vestibular part). It is sensory only. It was once called the auditory or acoustic nerve.
12. CN IX: name and function?
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The glossopharyngeal nerve is both sensory and motor. It carries taste from the back third of the tongue and sensation from the throat, senses blood pressure and oxygen at the neck, and helps with swallowing. It also sends parasympathetic fibers to the parotid gland.
13. CN X: name and function?
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The vagus nerve is both sensory and motor, and its name means wanderer. It runs from the head down through the chest and abdomen. It supplies the muscles of the throat and voice box and sends parasympathetic fibers to most organs of the chest and abdomen.
14. CN XI: name and function?
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The accessory nerve is motor. It supplies two muscles: the trapezius, which lifts the shoulder, and the sternocleidomastoid, which turns the head to the opposite side.
15. CN XII: name and function?
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The hypoglossal nerve is motor and moves the muscles of the tongue. If the nerve on one side is damaged, the tongue points toward the weak side when it is stuck out.
16. Which nerves move the eye, and what is the mnemonic?
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LR6 SO4, all the rest 3. The abducens (VI) supplies the lateral rectus, the trochlear (IV) supplies the superior oblique, and the oculomotor (III) supplies the other four extraocular muscles.
17. Which cranial nerves carry parasympathetic fibers?
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III, VII, IX and X. Learn it as 3, 7, 9, 10. The oculomotor constricts the pupil, the facial and glossopharyngeal supply glands in the head, and the vagus supplies most organs of the chest and abdomen.
18. Which three cranial nerves are purely sensory?
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I, II and VIII: olfactory, optic and vestibulocochlear. In Some Say Marry Money, But My Brother Says Big Brains Matter More, they sit under the words Some, Say and Says, which are the first, second and eighth words.
19. Which nerves form the pupillary light reflex pathway?
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Light on the retina sends the signal along the optic nerve (II), the afferent limb. The oculomotor nerve (III) carries the parasympathetic command back to the pupil, the efferent limb, so the pupil constricts. Both pupils respond because the signal crosses sides in the brainstem.
20. Which nerves form the corneal reflex pathway?
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Touching the cornea sends the signal along the ophthalmic division of the trigeminal nerve (V1), the afferent limb. The facial nerve (VII) carries the command to the eyelid muscles, the efferent limb, so the eyes blink.
Three cranial nerve mnemonics worth learning
Most students need three mnemonics. The first gives the order, from I to XII: On Old Olympus' Towering Top, A Finn And German Viewed A Hop. The first letters match olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens, facial, vestibulocochlear, glossopharyngeal, vagus, accessory and hypoglossal. A second popular version is Oh Oh Oh To Touch And Feel Very Good Velvet, Ah. Pick one and stick with it, because switching between them is how people get mixed up.
The second mnemonic gives the type of each nerve, as sensory (S), motor (M) or both (B): Some Say Marry Money, But My Brother Says Big Brains Matter More. Reading it letter by letter gives S S M M B M B S B B M M for nerves I to XII. The third is a mnemonic for the eye muscles: LR6 SO4, all the rest 3. The abducens (VI) moves the lateral rectus, the trochlear (IV) moves the superior oblique, and the oculomotor (III) moves the others.
How to use this deck
Start with the three mnemonic cards and write them out from memory. Then go through the twelve nerve cards in order. For each one, say its number, its name and whether it is sensory, motor or both, before you check the back. If you can do that for all twelve, you have the skeleton.
On the second pass, add the function and one detail you would be asked about: which muscles, which part of the tongue for taste, which reflex. The last five cards group nerves by pattern, such as which ones carry parasympathetic fibers, and which nerves form the two reflex pathways exams use. Missed cards come back in the next round, so be strict with yourself. This deck is anatomy practice for exams, not medical guidance.
How StudyPDF builds decks from your own anatomy notes
Twenty cards cover the core facts. Your course may ask for foramina, nuclei, branches and clinical correlations, and those differ from class to class.
Upload your own lecture slides, atlas pages or anatomy notes to StudyPDF, press New material and pick flashcards, and the deck is built from that exact material. You do not have to upload anything to start: you can also just name a topic, like the cranial nerves of the eye or the branches of the facial nerve, and Bo sets it up with its key concepts, so you can build a deck on it. Every card points back to the page it came from. Starting is free.
Written by the StudyPDF team. Last updated 2026-08-19.