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Eventually it emerged that his glossopharyngeal nerve, which controls the ability to swallow efficiently, had been damaged as a result of radiation received to shrink a benign tumor.

Eagle syndrome occurs when a piece of bone called a styloid process, which extends from the skull into the ear, presses on or irritates adjacent structures, including the glossopharyngeal nerve.

These fibers pass to the brain as parts of two pairs of nerves—those from the front of the tongue joining the trigeminal nerve, and those from the back of the tongue, the glossopharyngeal nerve.

But in these palaces of clashing splendour, the stunned brain fails to receive impressions from the glossopharyngeal nerve, and one eats unthinkingly like a dog.