Journal of Neurophysiology, Vol 38, Issue 6 1312-1321, Copyright © 1975 by APS
Morphology and enzyme histochemistry of dorsal muscles of the cat neck
F. J. Richmond and V. C. Abrahams
An examination has been made of the five dorsal muscles of the cat neck
which insert into the lamboidal crest. The three larger muscles, splenius,
biventer cervicis, and complexus, are characterized by the presence of
tendinous inscriptions which serve as the insertion points of shorter
muscle fibers which do not run the length of the muscle. Longer fibers are
bound by the inscriptions and, thus can transmit tension developed by
shorter fibers. These three muscles are multiply innervater by nerves
emerging from upper cervical spinal roots. Multiple innervation is not
associated with multiple end plates but with arrangement so that lower
roots innervate a high proportion of short fibers and higher roots, a high
proportion of long fibers. Occipitoscapularis and rectus capitis major are,
by comparison, simple muscles, each with a single motor nerve. Of the
muscles examined, occipitoscapularis alone does not have its origin on the
vertebral column but on the scapula, and is unlikely to have any major
function in head movement.
