cricopharyngeus muscle

The cricopharyngeus is a pharyngeal arch 4/6 muscle that participates in oral/pharyngeal behaviors and is innervated by the pharyngeal plexus and the recurrent laryngeal n. (from Vagus, CN X), and is an integral part of the pharyngeal tube, and attaches to the cricoid cartilage and the midline raphe. It acts as a sphincter between the pharynx and esophagus. Every claim on this page comes from the Leumas anatomy graph and carries its source.

What the cricopharyngeus muscle is

The cricopharyngeus is a pharyngeal arch 4/6 muscle that participates in oral/pharyngeal behaviors and is innervated by the pharyngeal plexus and the recurrent laryngeal n. (from Vagus, CN X), and is an integral part of the pharyngeal tube, and attaches to the cricoid cartilage and the midline raphe. It acts as a sphincter between the pharynx and esophagus. The atlas records it as a muscle at the organ scale in the human body.

Where the cricopharyngeus muscle is

It sits in the neck, within the muscular and respiratory systems. Not positioned individually, and containment is not asserted either. Drawn near structures of the same kind, which is a weak claim about location.

What the cricopharyngeus muscle connects to

The atlas records 8 typed relationships for it, across 4 kinds of connection. part of inferior pharyngeal constrictor, respiratory system and upper esophageal sphincter.

Supply and innervation

Innervation: vagus nerve.

Also called

Also recorded as cricopharyngeal part, cricopharyngeal part of inferior constrictor pharyngeus, cricopharyngeal part of inferior pharyngeal constrictor, cricopharyngeal part of inferior pharyngeal constrictor muscle, cricopharyngeus and cricopharyngeus portion of the inferior pharyngeal constrictor, and 3 more. Searching any of those names reaches this page.

Source

Uberon multi-species anatomy ontology (Mungall et al.), CC BY 4.0. Term UBERON:0010928, version 2026-06-19, retrieved 2026-08-24. Licence: CC-BY-4.0.

• Part of: inferior pharyngeal constrictor, respiratory system and upper esophageal sphincter.
• A kind of: chordate pharyngeal muscle, muscle belly and muscle organ.
• Innervated by: vagus nerve.
• originates from: cricoid cartilage.

Questions

Where is the cricopharyngeus muscle?

It sits in the neck, within the muscular and respiratory systems. Not positioned individually, and containment is not asserted either. Drawn near structures of the same kind, which is a weak claim about location.

What does the cricopharyngeus muscle connect to?

Part of: inferior pharyngeal constrictor, respiratory system and upper esophageal sphincter.

Is the cricopharyngeus muscle the same in other species?

Leumas holds the same relationship vocabulary for every species it carries, so where another dataset records this structure you can put the two side by side on /compare.