Interspinales colli muscles
Musculi interspinales colli
The interspinales colli are short paired muscles bridging the spinous processes of neighbouring neck vertebrae, from the axis down to T1.
At a glance
- English
- Interspinales colli muscles
- Latin (TA2)
- Musculi interspinales colli
- System
- Muscle
- Region
- Neck
- Side
- Paired, left and right
About the interspinales colli muscles
The interspinales are small, deep back muscles that join the spinous processes of adjacent vertebrae. In the neck they are better developed than anywhere else. Here each spinous process is usually split at its tip into two small knobs, and the muscles lie in pairs, one on each side of the interspinous ligament and the nuchal ligament, filling the gap between one spine and the next.
The highest pair spans the gap between the axis and the third cervical vertebra, and the lowest lies between C7 and T1. The atlas, which has no true spinous process, carries none. Each muscle is short and flat, running vertically from the upper border of one spine to the lower border of the spine above. They lie deep to semispinalis and multifidus, against the bone.
Their pull is small, but they help extend the neck and keep the cervical vertebrae steady on one another during movement. Because they are short and packed with muscle spindles, they are thought to act largely as sensors, reporting position and movement of each segment and so helping fine control of posture. They act together on both sides; they have no useful rotating or bending action.
The interspinales are supplied by the dorsal rami of the cervical spinal nerves at each level, and their blood comes from small branches of the vertebral, deep cervical and occipital arteries. They are rarely injured on their own, but they share in the stiffness and pain of neck sprain and are crossed in posterior surgical approaches to the cervical spine.
Attachments, action and supply
- Origin
- Upper border of the spinous process of each cervical vertebra from C3 to T1.
- Insertion
- Lower border of the spinous process of the vertebra immediately above, up to the axis.
- Action
- Extend the neck and steady adjacent vertebrae; provide position sense for each segment.
- Nerve supply
- Dorsal rami of the cervical spinal nerves.
- Blood supply
- Branches of the vertebral, deep cervical and occipital arteries.
Anthromica
See the interspinales colli muscles where it really sits, with every layer of the body around it.
- Every layer, one body. Peel from muscle to bone, nerve, vessel and organ, and turn it any way.
- English and Latin. Every structure named the way your exam names it.
- Quiz until it sticks. Short drills on the structures you keep missing.
Free to start. No card.
