The right membrana tympani with the hammer and the chorda tympani, viewed from within, from behind, and from above.
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|- style="text-align: center; line-height: 1;" class="hiddenStructure"
| colspan="2" |The medial wall and part of the posterior and anterior walls of the right tympanic cavity, lateral view. (Label for "Tensor tympani muscle" is at right, second from bottom.)
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|Latin
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|[[List of subjects in Gray's Anatomy:231#Gray.27s_page_.23|Gray's]]
|colspan="2"|[subject #231 ]
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|Origin:
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|Insertion:
|colspan="2"|handle of the malleus
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|[[Template:Arteries|Blood:]]
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|- style="vertical-align:top;"
|Nerve:
|colspan="2"|medial pterygoid nerve from the mandibular nerve (V)
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|Action:
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|Antagonist:
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|- class="hiddenStructure"
|MeSH
|colspan="2"|[]
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|Dorlands/Elsevier
|colspan="2"|[/]
|}
The tensor tympani muscle originates from the cartilagenous wall of the Eustachian tube (also called the auditory tube) and the bony wall surrounding the tube. The muscle inserts onto the handle of the malleus. When tensed, the action of the muscle is to pull the malleus medially, tensing the tympanic membrane, damping vibration in the ear ossicles and thereby reducing the amplitude of sounds.
Innervation of the muscle is from branches of the mandibular division of the trigeminal nerve (V3), by way of the Otic ganglion.
Details from Gray's anatomy
The Tensor tympani, the larger of the two muscles of the tympanic cavity, is contained in the bony canal above the osseous portion of the auditory tube, from which it is separated by the septum canalis musculotubarii.
It arises from the cartilaginous portion of the auditory tube and the adjoining part of the great wing of the sphenoid, as well as from the osseous canal in which it is contained.
Passing backward through the canal, it ends in a slender tendon which enters the tympanic cavity, makes a sharp bend around the extremity of the septum, and is inserted into the manubrium of the malleus, near its root.
Muscles of the [[Template:Muscles of head|Head]] — [[Template:Muscles of neck|Neck]] — [[Template:Muscles of trunk|Trunk]] — [[Template:Muscles of upper limb|Upper limb]] — [[Template:Muscles of lower limb|Lower limb]]— LIST OF ALL MUSCLES
