superior oblique extraocular muscle

The superior oblique muscle, or obliquus oculi superior, is a fusiform muscle in the upper, medial side of the orbit whose primary action is downward, lateral rotation of the eye. One of the extraocular muscles, the superior oblique is the only muscle innervated by the trochlear nerve (the fourth cranial nerve). Every claim on this page comes from the Leumas anatomy graph and carries its source.

What the superior oblique extraocular muscle is

The superior oblique muscle, or obliquus oculi superior, is a fusiform muscle in the upper, medial side of the orbit whose primary action is downward, lateral rotation of the eye. One of the extraocular muscles, the superior oblique is the only muscle innervated by the trochlear nerve (the fourth cranial nerve). The atlas records it as a muscle at the organ scale in the human body.

Where the superior oblique extraocular muscle is

It sits in the head, within the muscular and sensory 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 superior oblique extraocular muscle connects to

The atlas records 4 typed relationships for it, across 4 kinds of connection. a kind of oblique extraocular muscle.

Supply and innervation

Innervation: trochlear nerve.

Also called

Also recorded as dorsal oblique extraocular muscle, musculus obliquus superior, obliquus superior, superior oblique, superior oblique muscle and M. obliquus superior, 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:0006321, version 2026-06-19, retrieved 2026-08-24. Licence: CC-BY-4.0.

• A kind of: oblique extraocular muscle.
• Innervated by: trochlear nerve.
• inserts into: eyeball of camera-type eye.
• originates from: common tendinous ring.

Questions

Where is the superior oblique extraocular muscle?

It sits in the head, within the muscular and sensory 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 superior oblique extraocular muscle connect to?

A kind of: oblique extraocular muscle.

Is the superior oblique extraocular 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.