Suboccipital muscles in the cat neck: morphometry and histochemistry of the rectus capitis muscle complex

The morphometry, histochemistry, and biomechanical relationships of rectus capitis muscles were examined in adult cats. This family of muscles contained six members on the dorsal, ventral, and lateral aspects of the upper cervical vertebral column. Three dorsal muscles (rectus capitis posterior major, medius, and minor) formed a layered complex spanning from C1 and C2 to the skull. Rectus capitis posterior major was composed predominantly of fast fibers, but the other two deeper muscles contained progressively higher proportions of slow fibers. One ventral muscle, rectus capitis anterior major, was architecturally complex. It originated from several cervical vertebrae and appeared to be divided into two different heads. In contrast, rectus capitis anterior minor and rectus capitis lateralis were short, parallel-fibered muscles spanning between the skull and C1. The ventral muscles all had nonuniform distributions of muscle-fiber types in which fast fibers predominated. Dorsal and ventral muscle groupings usually had cross-sectional areas of 0.5 cm2 or more, reflecting a potential capacity to generate maximal tetanic force in excess of 9 N. Biomechanical analyses suggested that one muscle, rectus capitis lateralis, had its largest moment in lateral flexion, whereas the other muscles had large, posturally dependent moment arms appropriate for actions in flexion-extension. The observation that most rectus muscles have relatively large cross-sectional areas and high fast-fiber proportions suggests that the muscles may have important phasic as well as postural roles during head movement.