Abducens nerve

The sixth of twelve cranial nerves, the abducens nerve is a motor nerve that innervates the lateral rectus muscle and therefore controls each eye's ability to abduct (move away from the midline). The abducens nerve emerges from the ipsilateral abducens nucleus between the caudal pons beneath the floor of the fourth ventricle and the medulla (the pontomedullary junction). The abducens nerve exits the skull through the superior orbital fissure, one of the holes in the skull behind the eye.