Muscle · Neck

Spinalis cervicis

Musculus spinalis cervicis

The smallest and most medial of the three erector spinae columns where it reaches the neck, lying right against the midline and running from the lower part of the ligament at the back of the neck and the spine of the seventh cervical vertebra up to the spine of the second. Unlike its neighbours it connects spinous process to spinous process, so it lies closer to the axis of movement and its pull is almost purely a backward one. It is the least reliable muscle in the region: it is often thin, frequently blended with the semispinalis alongside it, and in a fair number of people it is absent altogether — a normal variation rather than a defect, and a useful reminder that the neat three-column diagram is a simplification.