Anatomy 101: Muscles - Upper Neck and Face As humans, a huge
amount of our communication is non-verbal, and subconscious
queues given by facial movements can say as much as any
exclamation. Almost all muscle on the head and neck is
considered skeletal (voluntary) muscle, and the muscles that
control the finest expressions originate from the facial bones,
and insert on the skin. Aside from the chewing muscles, there
are few that both insert and originate on bone. Like skeletal
muscles in the rest of the body, the muscles of the face
sometimes have an antagonistic partner - that is, a muscle that
performs the opposite action. Since muscles cannot perform a
pushing action, the antagonist is needed to pull its partner
back into place. One of the more obvious examples of this is the
biceps brachii and the triceps brachii - if you had one without
the other, the arm would only be able to move in one direction!
Unlike the rest of the body, however, the muscles of the head
and neck do not control limbs or need to push