Geniohyoid at a glance
- What it is
- A narrow muscle above the mylohyoid in the floor of the mouth.
- Location
- Origin: inferior mental spine of the mandible. Insertion: body of the hyoid bone.
- Function
- Pulls the hyoid forward and upward; depresses the mandible when the hyoid is fixed.
- Body system
- Muscular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA46327 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Innervation: C1 fibres travelling with the hypoglossal nerve
- Blood supply: lingual artery
- It lies on the upper surface of mylohyoid, beside its partner, and widens the pharynx by drawing the hyoid forward during swallowing.
Structures next to the geniohyoid
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Hyoglossus · muscular
- Genioglossus · muscular
- Mylohyoid · muscular
- Tongue · digestive
- Sublingual gland · digestive
- Gingiva of lower jaw · digestive
- Median thyrohyoid ligament · respiratory
- Hyo-epiglottic ligament · respiratory
- Lower second secondary premolar tooth · digestive
- Lower first secondary premolar tooth · digestive
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Geniohyoid (FMA46327). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §11.2 Naming Skeletal Muscles. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.