Obliquus capitis inferior at a glance
- What it is
- A suboccipital muscle below the atlas.
- Location
- Origin: spinous process of C2 (axis). Insertion: transverse process of C1 (atlas).
- Function
- Rotates the atlas, turning the head to the same side.
- Body system
- Muscular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA32537 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Innervation: suboccipital nerve (posterior ramus of C1)
- Forms the lower border of the suboccipital triangle
Structures next to the obliquus capitis inferior
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Vertebral artery · cardiovascular
- Rectus capitis posterior major · muscular
- Axis · skeletal
- Semispinalis capitis · muscular
- Atlas · skeletal
- Third cervical vertebra · skeletal
- Intervertebral disk of axis · skeletal
- Rectus capitis lateralis · muscular
- Superior oblique part of longus colli · muscular
- Central canal of spinal cord · nervous
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Obliquus capitis inferior (FMA32537). 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.