The stylopharyngeus muscle is considered by many to be one of the strap muscles, but is not an infrahyoid muscle.
2.
The branchial motor component of CN IX provides voluntary control of the stylopharyngeus muscle, which elevates the pharynx during swallowing and speech.
3.
Upon exiting the skull the branchial motor fibers descend deep to the temporal styloid process and wrap around the posterior border of the stylopharyngeus muscle before innervating it.
4.
The pharyngeal trunk usually consists of several branches which supply the middle and inferior pharyngeal constrictor muscles and the stylopharyngeus, ramifying in their substance and in the mucous membranes lining them.
5.
They are innervated by the pharyngeal branch of the Vagus nerve ( CN X ) with the exception of the stylopharyngeus muscle which is innervated by the glossopharyngeal nerve ( CN IX ).
6.
It is the smallest branch of the external carotid and is a long, slender vessel, deeply seated in the neck, beneath the other branches of the external carotid and under the stylopharyngeus muscle.
7.
The motor fibers'origin is the medulla oblongata, and they terminate at the parotid salivary gland, the glands of the posterior tongue, and the stylopharyngeus muscle ( which dilates the pharynx during swallowing ).
8.
Higher up, it is separated from the external carotid by the styloglossus and stylopharyngeus muscles, the tip of the styloid process and the stylohyoid ligament, the glossopharyngeal nerve and the pharyngeal branch of the vagus nerve.
9.
The pharynx is pulled upwards and forwards by the suprahyoid and longitudinal pharyngeal muscles stylopharyngeus ( IX ), salpingopharyngeus ( pharyngeal plexus IX, X ) and palatopharyngeus ( pharyngeal plexus IX, X ) to receive the bolus.
10.
Signals for the voluntary movement of stylopharyngeus muscle originate in the pre-motor and motor cortex ( in association with other cortical areas ) and pass via the corticobulbar tract in the genu of the internal capsule to synapse bilaterally on the ambiguus nuclei in the medulla.