auditory nerve
The eighth cranial nerve. The auditory nerve, also known as the vestibulocochlear nerve, transmits information from the inner ear to the hindbrain. It serves two distinct functions:
The acoustic portion carries sensations of sound and pitch from the organ of hearing, the cochlea; these are relayed to the auditory part of the cerebral cortex;
The vestibular portion carries postural sensation from the semicircular canals of the inner ear to the cerebellum. It provides information about position.
The auditory nerve derives embryologically as a sensory branch of the seventh cranial nerve.