A nasal glioma usually has no connection to the intracranial brain. These lesions unlike intracranial gliomas, contain non-neoplastic glial tissue. For this reason, the term nasal glioma is not accurate; nasal brain heterotopia or nasally trapped brain might be a better term.

Nasal gliomas are generally disconnected from the brain and grow very little or none at all.

Occasionally (1%–15%), they remain connected to the brain via a thin stalk, and their growth may reflect that of intracranial structures.

Nasal gliomas have intermediate signal intensity on T1-weighted images, may show some contrast enhancement, and have high signal intensity on T2-weighted images as a result of gliosis.