Muscle · Neck

Stylopharyngeus

Musculus stylopharyngeus

A long thin muscle running down from the styloid process behind the ear to the wall of the throat, entering it through the gap between the superior and middle constrictors — one of the few structures that pass into the pharynx from outside, which makes that gap a useful landmark. Its pull lifts and widens the pharynx to receive a bolus, working with palatopharyngeus and salpingopharyngeus as the three longitudinal elevators against the circular squeeze of the constrictors. It is the only muscle of the pharynx supplied by the glossopharyngeal nerve, and that nerve winds around its lower border on its way to the tongue, so the muscle is used to find the nerve.