Muscle · Head

Musculus uvulae

Musculus uvulae

The small paired muscle inside the uvula — the soft tag hanging at the back of the palate. It arises from the bony spine at the back of the hard palate and from the palate's fibrous sheet and runs backwards into the uvula's lining, so contracting it shortens and lifts the tag and thickens the middle of the soft palate. That thickening matters more than the movement: it fills the last gap when the palate is raised against the back wall of the throat, completing the seal that keeps food out of the nose. Because it lies in the midline, it is the structure clinicians watch when they ask you to say 'ah'.