The oblique arytenoid, the more superficial
arytenoid muscle
The arytenoid muscle is a single muscle of the larynx. It passes from one arytenoid cartilage to the opposite arytenoid cartilage. It has oblique and transverse fibres. It is supplied by the recurrent laryngeal nerve. It approximates the arytenoi ...
, forms two
fasciculi, which pass from the base of one cartilage to the apex of the opposite one, and therefore cross each other like the limbs of the letter X; a few fibers are continued around the lateral margin of the cartilage, and are prolonged into the aryepiglottic fold; they are sometimes described as a separate muscle, the ''Aryepiglotticus''.
The aryepiglottic muscle together with the transverse arytenoid and the thyroarytenoid work as a
sphincter
A sphincter is a circular muscle that normally maintains constriction of a natural body passage or orifice and which relaxes as required by normal physiological functioning. Sphincters are found in many animals. There are over 60 types in the h ...
and close the
larynx as we swallow or cough. Its innervation is by the recurrent laryngeal nerve (from vagus) just like all the intrinsic muscles of the larynx except the cricothyroid muscle.
References
External links
* ()
Muscles of the head and neck
{{muscle-stub