Longus capitis at a glance
- What it is
- A prevertebral muscle in front of the upper cervical spine.
- Location
- Origin: anterior tubercles of the transverse processes of C3–C6. Insertion: basilar part of the occipital bone.
- Function
- Flexes the head and neck.
- Body system
- Muscular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA46310 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Innervation: anterior rami of C1–C3
- It lies in front of longus colli, behind the retropharyngeal space and the pharynx.
- Blood supply: ascending pharyngeal and ascending cervical arteries
Structures next to the longus capitis
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Superior oblique part of longus colli · muscular
- Lateral thyrohyoid ligament · respiratory
- Pharyngeal raphe · digestive
- Palatopharyngeus · muscular
- Intervertebral disk of axis · skeletal
- Vertebral artery · cardiovascular
- Intervertebral disk of third cervical vertebra · skeletal
- Stylopharyngeus · muscular
- Middle pharyngeal constrictor · muscular
- Anterior cervical intertransversarii · muscular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Longus capitis (FMA46310). 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.