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Cervical hypaxial muscles
The muscular wall of the neck arises from the hypomeres of the cervical somites and develops in accordance with the anterior and lateral body wall muscle pattern. A close scrutiny of the cervical hypaxial muscles reveals a ventral muscle, which has split into numerous subdivisions, a four-layered lateral muscle wall where the muscles have lost their sheet-like structure, and a subvertebral muscle on the anterior surface of the neck vertebrae. Within each of the patterned subdivisions various named muscles emerge during development. Functionally, these cervical trunk muscles serve numerous roles. Some of the muscles function to stabilize and move the cervical vertebral column. Some of the muscles assist in raising the upper ribs. The strap-like ventral muscles, which run from the sternum to the larynx to the hyoid bone to the mandible, are active during mastication, swallowing, respiration, and sound production. These seemingly varied muscles are all innervated by the anterior rami of the cervical spinal nerves.