great auricular nerve [AS, large; L, auricula, little ear, nervus, nerve] , one of a pair of cutaneous branches of the cervical plexus, arising from the second and the third cervical nerves. It is distributed to the skin of the face and the skin of the mastoid process. It also communicates with the lesser occipital nerve, the auricular branch of the vagus nerve, and the posterior auricular branch of the facial nerve.
