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Obliquus capitis superior muscle

Muscle of the neck

Field	Value
Name	Obliquus capitis superior muscle
Latin	musculus obliquus capitis superior
Image	Obliquus capitis superior muscle06.png
Caption	Skull seen from behind (obliquus capitis superior shown in red)
Image2	Suboccipital triangle dissection - Obliquus capitis superior muscle.png
Caption2	Obliquus capitis superior (red) and its relationship to other suboccipital muscles.
Origin	Lateral mass of atlas
Insertion	Lateral half of the inferior nuchal line
Nerve	Suboccipital nerve
Action	Extends head and flex head to the ipsilateral side

The obliquus capitis superior muscle () is a small muscle in the upper back part of the neck. It is one of the suboccipital muscles. It attaches inferiorly at the transverse process of the atlas (first cervical vertebra); it attaches superiorly at the external surface of the occipital bone. The muscle is innervated by the suboccipital nerve (the posterior ramus of the first cervical spinal nerve).

It acts at the atlanto-occipital joint to extend the head and bend the head to the same side.

Anatomy

The obliquus capitis superior muscle is one of the suboccipital muscles. It forms the superolateral boundary of the suboccipital triangle. It extends superoposteriorly from its inferior attachment to its superior attachment, becoming wider superiorly.

Attachments

The muscle's inferior attachment is at the superior surface of the transverse process of the atlas (C1).

Its superior attachment is onto the lateral portion of the external surface of the occipital bone between the superior nuchal line and inferior nuchal line. Its superior attachment is situated lateral to that of the semispinalis capitis muscle, and overlaps the attachment of the rectus capitis posterior major muscle.

Innervation

The muscle receives motor innervation from the suboccipital nerve (i.e. the posterior ramus of the cervical spinal nerve 1 (C1)).

Actions/movements

The muscle extends and (ipsilaterally) laterally flexes the head.

Additional images

File:Obliquus capitis superior muscle - animation04.gif|Position of obliquus capitis superior (shown in red). Animation. File:Obliquus capitis superior muscle05.png|Still image. Posterior view. File:Obliquus capitis superior.png|Deep muscles of the back (obliquus capitis superior labeled at upper left) File:Gray129.png|Occipital bone. Outer surface. Muscle attachments are shown as red circles. File:Gray187.png|Base of skull. Inferior surface. Muscle attachments are shown as red circles.

References

Standring, Susan. (2020). "Gray's Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice".
Sinnatamby, Chummy S.. (2011). "Last's Anatomy". Elsevier Australia.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

muscles-of-the-head-and-neck

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