Interspinales cervicis at a glance
- What it is
- Short paired muscles between the spinous processes of adjacent cervical vertebrae.
- Location
- Lie on either side of the interspinous ligament between spinous processes of adjacent cervical vertebrae.
- Function
- Assist extension of the neck and have a mainly proprioceptive role.
- Body system
- Muscular · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA71309 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Innervation: dorsal rami of cervical spinal nerves
- They are best developed in the neck, where the bifid cervical spinous processes give each pair of muscles two attachment points.
Structures next to the interspinales cervicis
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Cervical rotator · muscular
- Fourth cervical vertebra · skeletal
- Third cervical vertebra · skeletal
- Semispinalis capitis · muscular
- Fifth cervical vertebra · skeletal
- Sixth cervical vertebra · skeletal
- Posterior cervical intertransversarii · muscular
- Spinalis · muscular
- Splenius capitis · muscular
- Anterior cervical intertransversarii · muscular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Interspinales cervicis (FMA71309). 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.