Which Nerve Controls Motion of the Neck and Shoulder Muscles?

The answer is the accessory nerve — the eleventh cranial nerve. Milady describes it directly: "The motor nerve that controls motions of the neck muscles."

The seventh cranial nerve (the facial nerve) is a different nerve with a different job — it's the face's chief motor nerve, controlling expression muscles like the ones around the mouth and eyes, not the neck and shoulders. Both are motor nerves, which is likely why they get confused on practice tests.

Why this trips people up: this question was keyed to "seventh cranial nerve" in FadeJunkie's own bank until a July 2026 audit corrected it — first via cross-referenced secondary sources, then independently reconfirmed against a direct quote in the real textbook. If a study source has this question keyed to the seventh cranial nerve, that's the same error.

Source

Milady Standard Barbering, 6th ed., Ch. 12, p. 308: "Eleventh cranial nerve (accessory nerve). The motor nerve that controls motions of the neck muscles."

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