Memory Aid for Structures Derived from Branchial Arch Derivatives and Pouches

Here's another memory device that helped me on the anatomy test for head and neck (credit goes to Walid and Amirah, again.) This one is for structures derived from the branchial (pharnygeal) arches and pouches. And it's also kind of corny, but if you remember this story, you'll be able to fill in the branchial arch derivatives chart (which I recommend writing on the back of your exam as soon as you get it.)

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Geminal. She had a wonderful boyfriend that she loved dearly – but unfortunately, he moved to Ohio to pursue his education. Well, Geminal was a mess. She cried, "Ohhhhh! My love is in Ohio!" (mylohyoid) She was so depressed that she ate, and ate, and ate, using her muscles of mastication, of course, and her sphenomandibular ligament. She gained so much weight that, well, you could say she became TRIgeminal. So she started talking to her boyfriend on the phone more often, because she didn’t want him to see her - to see how much weight she’d gained. She used her malleus (with its anterior ligament), her incus, her auditory tube, her tympanic cavity, and her external auditory meatus to hear about his college adventures and how much he missed her. And then she decided to lose her extra weight – she picked up exercising. She did her tensor palatis, her tensor tympanis, and got rid of the anterior belly of her digastric.

So that’s Geminal.

Geminal’s boyfriend, on the other hand, was very popular on campus due to his beautiful face (muscles of facial expression, facial nerve), his impeccable style [as a matter of fact, he was known as the style of Ohio (stylohyoid.)] He had, of course, a posterior belly of the digastric; and no scars, as would be seen if he had his palatine tonsils (and their lining) removed. With all of these going for him, as you can imagine, he spent a lot of time "stapeding" around campus. (I realize that’s not a real word. Work with me here.)

The Style of Ohio, Facial Boy, had a good-for-nothing brother. His brother wasn’t doing anything with his life – just kind of riding on his brother’s coattails, and relying on his dad’s help for everything else. On a laziness scale of 1 to 10, the brother would rate a 9 (cranial nerve IX). Before Facial Boy went to college, he and his good-for-nothing brother were working on rebuilding an old car together – they called it "The Hyoid". When it was finally finished, the brother, although he had done the lower half of the body work on the Hyoid, he blew a greater horn and let everyone believe that he had done it all. His brother, being humble as well as hot, didn’t say anything – although he'd done the upper half of the body work on the Hyoid, he blew a lesser horn. And even though the lazy brother was the oldest, he acted like he was about ten years old – the geeky family joked that he still had a thymus. And keeping with the inferior theme, he brings to mind the inferior parathyroid glands. Because he just does. And the only muscle that this guy EVER works is his stylopharyngeus.

The father of Facial Boy and his lazy brother did basically everything else. All of the cartilages of the larynx, all of the muscles of the larynx, all muscles of the pharynx, and all muscles of the soft palate (except tensor palati, which is done by Geminal, remember.) Since the lazy brother didn’t finish the parathyroid glands, Daddy picked up the superior parathyroid glands. Daddy also does the C-cells of the thyroid. You’re just going to have to remember that, because it doesn’t fit anywhere.

And the XI cranial nerve does the sternocleidomastoid and trapezius muscles. You probably already know that anyway.