Muscle · Hand

Palmar interossei

Musculi interossei palmares

The smaller, single-headed partners of the dorsal interossei, lying on the palm side of the long bones of the hand. Where the dorsal muscles spread the fingers, these draw them back together toward the middle finger — the mnemonic is PAD, palmar adduct. That is the action that squeezes the fingers around a held object and keeps a card or a sheet of paper from sliding out from between them. They also help hold the knuckles bent while the fingers stay straight. All of them are ulnar, so they fail alongside the dorsal group and leave a hand that can move its fingers but cannot control them.