I get why people can control their eyes while paralyzed, but why can they not control the rest of their face usually? I didn’t think those nerves went through the brain stem either.
In: Biology
The degree of paralysis depends on the location of the injury to the nervous system. The nerves that control the eye muscles and movements are in a higher part of the brainstem (mostly midbrain) and facial movements are controlled in a lower part of the brainstem (pons). If there is an injury to the area of the brainstem that controls the facial muscles but not the eye muscles, then the face but not the eye movements are paralyzed. If there is an injury to the area of the brainstem that controls the eye muscles then the eye movements will also be paralyzed.
It gets more confusing because the higher parts of the brain also are involved in these processes but this is ELI5 so won’t go further. Neuroanatomy is hard and extremely complex.
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