Anatomy study note · Head and neck
Muscles of facial expression
Thin integumentary muscles of the face, mostly arising from the skull bones and inserting into the skin or other facial muscles. Their main role is to open and close the facial orifices (orbits, nostrils, mouth); facial expression is a by-product of that control.
Key points
- All supplied by the facial nerve.
- They control the facial orifices; expression is secondary.
- Corrugator: vertical frown lines. Procerus: wrinkles the nose.
- Lip dilators radiate from the lips and separate them.
- UMN lesion spares the forehead; LMN lesion does not.
- From the second (hyoid) pharyngeal arch → facial nerve.
- Skeletal muscle: multinucleated, peripheral nuclei, striated.
- Epimysium → perimysium → endomysium.
The full note in the atlas also covers
Features · Nerve supply · Histology · Development · Clinical notes
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Written from
- Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 12, PDF pp. 1519, 1536–1539
- Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 9, PDF pp. 120, 122, 125
- BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 8, PDF pp. 135–144
More from the head and neck
- Musculus uvulae
- Mylohyoid
- Nasal bone
- Occipital bone
- Occipital lobe
- Occipitofrontalis
- Oculomotor nerve
- Olfactory nerve
- Omohyoid
- Ophthalmic artery
- Ophthalmic nerve
- Ophthalmic veins
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