Muscle · Neck

Longissimus cervicis

Musculus longissimus cervicis

The neck's share of the longissimus column, the middle of the three vertical columns of the erector spinae. It is made of long thin slips running up from the transverse processes of the upper thoracic vertebrae to the transverse processes of the middle cervical ones, staying out to the side of the spine the whole way. Because it links transverse process to transverse process it acts on the neck as a column — extending it and bending it towards its own side — rather than on the head, which its partner longissimus capitis handles by continuing on to the skull. It is the continuation into the neck of the same muscle that runs the whole length of the back.