Anatomic study of tongue architecture based on fetal histological sections.

Tongue muscles are difficult to study by dissection and imaging methods because of the intermeshing of the muscular fibers. The study of the architecture of the tongue was based on 853 tongue sections of a fetus aged 32 weeks after conception. The analysis of the sections allowed demonstration of the different intrinsic and extrinsic muscles of the tongue, to determine their situation from the palatoglossus arch to the apex of the tongue. The tongue muscles are organized in different layers from cranial to caudal and from lateral to medial, one medial for the genioglossus muscle, one paramedial for the hyoglossus, the styloglossus and the inferior longitudinal muscles. In the anterior third of the tongue, the muscles presented a concentric organization.