The muscles of the hand are the

skeletal muscle Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscl ...

s responsible for the movement of the

hand A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the koala (which has two opposable thumbs on each "h ...

and fingers. The muscles of the hand can be subdivided into two groups: the extrinsic and intrinsic muscle groups. The extrinsic muscle groups are the long flexors and

extensors In anatomy, extension is a movement of a joint that increases the angle between two bones or body surfaces at a joint. Extension usually results in straightening of the bones or body surfaces involved. For example, extension is produced by extendin ...

. They are called extrinsic because the muscle belly is located on the

forearm The forearm is the region of the upper limb between the elbow and the wrist. The term forearm is used in anatomy to distinguish it from the arm, a word which is most often used to describe the entire appendage of the upper limb, but which in anat ...

. The intrinsic group are the smaller muscles located within the hand itself. The muscles of the hand are innervated by the radial,

median In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic fe ...

, and

ulnar nerve In human anatomy, the ulnar nerve is a nerve that runs near the ulna bone. The ulnar collateral ligament of elbow joint is in relation with the ulnar nerve. The nerve is the largest in the human body unprotected by muscle or bone, so injury is ...

s from the brachial plexus.

Intrinsic

The intrinsic muscle groups are the

thenar The thenar eminence is the mound formed at the base of the thumb on the palm of the hand by the intrinsic group of muscles of the thumb. The skin overlying this region is the area stimulated when trying to elicit a palmomental reflex. The word ...

(

thumb The thumb is the first digit of the hand, next to the index finger. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position (where the palm is facing to the front), the thumb is the outermost digit. The Medical Latin English noun for thumb ...

) and hypothenar ( little finger) muscles; the interossei muscles ( four dorsally and three volarly) originating between the metacarpal bones; and the lumbrical muscles arising from the deep flexor (and which are special because they have no bony origin) to insert on the dorsal extensor hood mechanism.

Palmaris brevis Palmaris brevis muscle is a thin, quadrilateral muscle, placed beneath the integument of the ulnar side of the hand. It acts to fold the skin of the hypothenar eminence transversally. Structure Origin and insertion Palmaris brevis muscle is loc ...

which is a superficial muscle and

adductor pollicis In human anatomy, the adductor pollicis muscle is a muscle in the hand that functions to adduct the thumb. It has two heads: transverse and oblique. It is a fleshy, flat, triangular, and fan-shaped muscle deep in the thenar compartment beneath ...

are also intrinsic muscles.

Extrinsic

The fingers have two long flexors, located on the underside of the forearm. They insert by

tendon A tendon or sinew is a tough, high-tensile-strength band of dense fibrous connective tissue that connects muscle to bone. It is able to transmit the mechanical forces of muscle contraction to the skeletal system without sacrificing its ability ...

s to the

phalanges of the fingers The phalanges (singular: ''phalanx'' ) are digital bones in the hands and feet of most vertebrates. In primates, the thumbs and big toes have two phalanges while the other digits have three phalanges. The phalanges are classed as long bones. ...

. The deep flexor attaches to the distal phalanx, and the superficial flexor attaches to the middle phalanx. The flexors allow for the actual bending of the fingers. The thumb has one long flexor and a short flexor in the thenar muscle group. The human thumb also has other muscles in the thenar group ( opponens and abductor brevis muscle), moving the thumb in opposition, making grasping possible. The extensors are located on the back of the forearm and are connected in a more complex way than the flexors to the dorsum of the fingers. The tendons unite with the interosseous and lumbrical muscles to form the extensorhood mechanism. The primary function of the extensors is to straighten out the digits. The thumb has two extensors in the forearm; the tendons of these form the

anatomical snuff box The anatomical snuff box or snuffbox or foveola radialis is a triangular deepening on the radial, dorsal aspect of the hand—at the level of the carpal bones, specifically, the scaphoid and trapezium bones forming the floor. The name originate ...

. Also, the index finger and the little finger have an extra extensor, used, for instance, for pointing. The extensors are situated within 6 separate compartments. The first four compartments are located in the grooves present on the dorsum of inferior side of

radius In classical geometry, a radius ( : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', meaning ray but also the ...

, while the 5th compartment is in between radius and

ulna The ulna (''pl''. ulnae or ulnas) is a long bone found in the forearm that stretches from the elbow to the smallest finger, and when in anatomical position, is found on the medial side of the forearm. That is, the ulna is on the same side of t ...

. The 6th compartment is in the groove on the dorsum of inferior side of ulna.

Nerve supply

The muscles of the hand are innervated by the radial,

, and

s. The radial nerve innervates the finger extensors and the thumb abductor; that is, the muscles that extend at the wrist and

metacarpophalangeal joints The metacarpophalangeal joints (MCP) are situated between the metacarpal bones and the proximal phalanges of the fingers. These joints are of the condyloid kind, formed by the reception of the rounded heads of the metacarpal bones into shallow cavi ...

(knuckles) and abduct and

extend Extension, extend or extended may refer to: Mathematics Logic or set theory * Axiom of extensionality * Extensible cardinal * Extension (model theory) * Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that satisfy the predicate * Ex ...

the thumb. The median nerve innervates the flexors of the wrist and digits, the abductors and opponens of the thumb, the first and second lumbricals. The ulnar nerve innervates the remaining intrinsic muscles of the hand. All muscles of the hand are innervated by the brachial plexus ( C5– T1) and can be classified by innervation:

References

{{Muscles of upper limb Muscles of the upper limb Hand

Intrinsic

Extrinsic

Nerve supply

See also

References