Muscle · Neck

Intertransversarii anteriores cervicis

Musculi intertransversarii anteriores cervicis

Small muscles filling the gaps between the front tubercles of adjacent cervical transverse processes, one pair at each level down the side of the neck. They lie in front of the emerging nerve roots, which places them in a different compartment from almost every other muscle of the back of the trunk and explains their nerve supply: they are served by the front branches of the spinal nerves rather than the back ones, the reverse of the usual arrangement. Each crosses a single segment, so the movement one can produce is a slight bend of one vertebra towards its own side; like the other short segmental muscles they are as much sensors of position as producers of movement.