Muscle · Neck

Sternohyoid

Musculus sternohyoideus

A thin flat ribbon running straight up the front of the neck from the back of the breastbone to the hyoid bone — the most superficial of the four strap muscles, and one of the pair that stands out either side of the windpipe when somebody strains. Its obvious job is to pull the hyoid back down after a swallow has lifted it. Its more important one is quieter: by anchoring the hyoid downwards it gives the muscles above the hyoid something fixed to pull against, which is what allows them to open the jaw at all. It is supplied by the ansa cervicalis, a loop of nerve from the upper cervical segments that lies on the front of the great vessels of the neck.