The nucleus for the abducens nerve is located in the caudal pons.
It is a somatic motor nerve.
CN VI controls the lateral rectus muscle which abducts the eye. The abducens nucleus contains interneurons that feed into the contralateral medial longitudinal fascicles (MLF) to the medial rectus motor neurons. This allows for horizontal eye movements where the lateral rectus of one eye and the contralateral medial rectus are contracted simultaneously.
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