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suboccipital nerve

dorsal ramus of the first cervical nerve, passing through the suboccipital triangle and sending branches to the rectus capitis posterior major and minor, obliquus capitis superior and inferior, rectus capitis lateralis, and semispinalis capitis; the first cervical spinal nerve is generally considered to have only motor fibres, but the suboccipital nerve receives sensory fibres for proprioception via a communicating branch from the second cervical spinal nerve.

Synonym: nervus suboccipitalis.