 foramen magnum, the big hole at the bottom of your skull that your brain stem transitioning into the spinal cord drops through. Your posterior vertebral arteries go through that area. But the jugular vein has a hole off to the side by itself, as does the vagus nerve have a hole off to the side by itself. Yet it still travels along the throat. And the vagus nerve is the nerve of parasympathetic activity, the rest and digest nerve.