Tongue muscles-1

Our tongue is a multifunctional organ. It helps us in - talking, singing, clicking, eating, chewing, swallowing, dislodging food particles stuck between teeth, tasting, rolling and moving food, slurping and of course in teasing if we choose to be naughty.

Sunbirds are known to probe the flowers with their beak and sip nectar using their tongue, rolled up lengthwise along the sides like a straw. Pollen stick to the tip of the forked tongue and may reach stigma of other flowers to pollinate them. Woodpeckers have very long tongues with barbs at the tip. The tongue tip is coated with sticky saliva. The woodpecker's tongues are very effective insect-capturing tools. Many mammals are known to clean their fur and eyes with their tongues.

Chameleons, the lizards with phenomenal skin color changing ability, can catch prey insects from a distance of more than two and a half times their body lengths. Their tongues are projectile and have powerful "super-contracting" muscles.

Lampreys, are an example of lowest vertebrates, with no jaws (agnatha) and round mouth (cyclostomata), use their tongue with backwardly directed denticles on it for rasping the flesh of their victim on whom they latch on.

The mammalian tongue is made up of muscles - skeletal muscles and mucous membrane. Some muscles of tongue are inside the tongue and are called the intrinsic muscles. With these muscles we can change the shape of the tongue. These intrinsic muscles of the tongue originate and are inserted within the tongue

The muscles outside the tongue but connected to it and the inside of mouth cavity are the extrinsic muscles. Their contraction and relaxation makes the tongue move and stretch in different directions.

Let us consider the intrinsic muscles of the tongue first. These are the - Superior longitudinal, Inferior longitudinal, Transverse lingual and the Vertical lingual. They are inserted into the mucous membrane, septum and other muscles of tongue. On the midline of undersurface of the tongue is a thin mucous membrane fold called frenulum? You may stand in front of a mirror, open your mouth and lift your tongue to see the lingual frenulum. The frenulum does not allow the tongue to slip too much on the posterior side. If it is too short the person is literally tongue-tied and develops faulty speech.

The hypoglossal nerve (cranial nerve number XII) innervates all the intrinsic muscles of the tongue. The term hypoglossal literally means - below the tongue and true to its name it is really found below the tongue.

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