This roughly round motor nucleus lies in the caudal lateral part of the pontine tegmentum, and lies anterior and medial to the trigeminal spinal nucleus.. Efferent fibers exiting this nucleus to become the facial nerve (CN 7) travel rostral and posteriorly to the ventricular surface where they arch over the abducens nucleus to form the facial colliculus bump on the floor of the IVth ventricle. Then the axons proceed in a anterolateral course to exit the brainstem at the ponto-medullary junction between nerves 6 and 8 and innervate muscles of facial expression on the ipsilateral side of the face.
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