The stapedius is the smallest striated muscle in the human body. At just over one millimeter in length, its purpose is to stabilize the smallest bone in the body, the stapes. It prevents excess movement by the stapes, helping to control the conduction of sound waves from the external environment to the inner ear. Paralysis of the stapedius allows wider oscillation of the stapes, resulting in heightened reaction of the auditory ossicles to sound vibration. Loud noises become deafening. A top-down view of skeletal muscle Skeletal muscle is a type of striated muscle, attached to the skeleton. ... Binomial name Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Subspecies Homo sapiens idaltu (extinct) Homo sapiens sapiens Human beings define themselves in biological, social, and spiritual terms. ... The stapes or stirrup is the stirrup-shaped small bone or ossicle in the middle ear which attaches the incus to the fenestra ovalis, the oval window which is adjacent to the vestibule of the inner ear. ... A schematic representation of hearing. ... A left human ear. ... Paralysis is the complete loss of muscle function for one or more muscle groups. ... Oscillation is the periodic variation, typically in time, of some measure as seen, for example, in a swinging pendulum. ... The ossicles (also called auditory ossicles) are the three smallest bones in the human body. ...

The stapedius is innervated by a branch of Cranial Nerve VII, the facial nerve. The facial nerve is seventh of twelve paired cranial nerves. ...