RESEARCH ARTICLE Anatomical variations of the deep head of Cruveilhier of the flexor pollicis brevis and its significance for the evolution of the precision grip Samuel S. Dunlap1☯*, M. Ashraf Aziz2, Janine M. Ziermann2☯* 1 Independent Researcher, Reston, VA, United States of America, 2 Howard University College of Medicine, Dept. Anatomy, Washington, DC, United States of America ☯ These authors contributed equally to this work. *
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[email protected] (JMZ) a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 Abstract a1111111111 a1111111111 Cruveilhier described in 1834 the human flexor pollicis brevis (FPB), a muscle of the thenar compartment, as having a superficial and a deep head, respectively, inserted onto the radial and ulnar sesamoids of the thumb. Since then, Cruveilhier's deep head has been controver- sially discussed. Often this deep head is confused with Henle's ªinterosseous palmaris OPEN ACCESS volarisº or said to be a slip of the oblique adductor pollicis. In the 1960s, Day and Napier Citation: Dunlap SS, Aziz MA, Ziermann JM (2017) described anatomical variations of the insertions of Cruveilhier's deep head, including its Anatomical variations of the deep head of absence, and hypothesized, that the shift of the deep head's insertion from ulnar to radial Cruveilhier of the flexor pollicis brevis and its facilitated ªtrue opposabilityº in anthropoids. Their general thesis for muscular arrangements significance for the evolution of the precision grip. PLoS ONE 12(11): e0187402. https://doi.org/ underlying the power and precision grip is sound, but they did not delineate their deep head 10.1371/journal.pone.0187402 from Henle's muscle or the adductor pollicis, and their description of the attachments of Cru- Editor: David Carrier, University of Utah, UNITED veilhier's deep head were too vague and not supported by a significant portion of the anatom- STATES ical literature.