Anatomy and Physiology Series: Anatomy and Physiology Terminology and orientation

Hello all!  It has been a little too long since I posted something of significant substance, at least for me.  So I will now begin on my first blog series on the anatomy and physiology of our respiratory, laryngeal, pharyngeal, and articulatory systems.  It might be a bit of a long haul, but I feel this information can never be over-emphasized to the singing world, and indeed, to all professional voice-users out there (that includes you too school teachers, and God bless ya for doing what you do!).  Why from the bottom up?  Well, things actually get more complicated the further up you go, so it's a nice way to "ease" into this series, before I whomp you with too much A&P terminology. Also, I will be including an overlay of what the biological function of these systems are for us, because sometimes, that biological function runs counter to what we want when we sing (mainly thinking of the pharyngeal systems here).  


Speaking of terminology, a little anatomy/physiology orientation might be in order.  We're going to be talking about a lot of muscles, and I might include some innervation as well (nerves that run to muscles), so here's some background into names of muscles.  Muscles are named either for function (i.e. anything with "levator" in it's name would elevate something, "depressor" would lower something, etc.), for point of origin and insertion (which would correspond to similarly-named parts of the skeletal structure), for how the fibers run ("oblique" muscles run at an angle to the midline of the body, "rectus" runs with or parallel to the midline, etc.), and/or for the size of the muscle (i.e. "maximus" would be a large muscle, "brevis" would be a short muscle, etc.).  So the names don't always make a lot of sense unless you know what it's being named for.  (Here's a little test:  What would you think the "levator veli palatini" is named for?  Well, the "levator" part is elevation, the "veli" has to do with the "velum," or soft palate, and the "palatini" comes from the palatine bone.  So this guy is the muscle that elevates the soft palate.  Pretty cool, huh?)


Spinal nerves (the guys mostly responsible for respiration) are named and numbered according to which vertebrae they exit from (we'll go vertebrae numbers/names further down this entry).  Cranial nerves are much more confusing, (thanks past A&P research scientists!), having some named for function, some for where they coarse in the body ("vagus" meanings "wandering," and it travels far and wide to it's destination points in the body), and some for how many parts they have ("trigeminal" comes from having three branches...kinda saw that one coming, didn't ya?).  Cranial nerves are all numbered (thankfully!) from one to twelve from the origin at the front of the brain (#1:  Olfactory, in charge of your sense of smell) to the back (#12:  Hypoglossal, in charge of most tongue movement).  Why cranial and not spinal?  Well, cranial nerves all branch off of some area above the foramen magnum, which literally means "giant hole," at the base of your skull.  Anything above this puppy is considered a part of your brain stem (all the way up to your frontal cortex), and what comes out below it is considered your spine.  

A little bone orientation:  A foramen is an opening (or hole), processes are projections in the bone (usually a point of attachment for a muscle or another bone), and "articulation" (when talking about bones) is a point where bones connect...so it's bascally a joint.  (Why not just call it a joint?  Well, a point of articulation usually a little more specific, like just the skeletal structure, since "joints" properly consist of connective tissue like ligaments and tendons.  When you don't want to talk about that silly connective tissue, you use "point of articulation" instead.)


Vertebrae:  These guys are classified by name and number.  Anyone who's ever had back trouble have probably heard of their names.  There are seven cervical vertebrae (with #1 and #2 being your "Atlas" and "Axis" respectively), twelve thoracic vertebrae (these guys articulate with the ribs), five lumbar vertebrae, five sacral vertebrae (they're in the back of your pelvic region), and 3-5 (usually five) coccygeal vertebrae which are fused together (this is your "tail bone.")  So when I get to rib movement and/or start throwing out spinal nerves at ya, you'll know where to refer to (and I'll probably link it anyway if you're like me and forget).  


For next time:
Important respiratory skeletal structures:  The spine, the 12 paired ribs (24 total, and yes, the number is the same for women as for men), the sternum with it's three parts (top-down: Manubrium, body, and xiphoid process), the clavicle (or "collar bone"), pelvis, and the scapula (as a point of muscular attachment for some respiratory muscles.)