Question

The tensor tympani muscle is attached to:
A. Malleus
B. Stapes
C. Incus
D. Tympanum

Answer 1

Hint: Tensor tympani is a muscle located in the middle ear so it would be attached to a structure in the middle ear which may be malleus, incus, or stapes.

Complete answer:Tensor tympani is a muscle present in middle ear. It is located in the bony canal, to be specific, above the bony part of the auditory tube and gets inserted into the handle of the malleus. Insertion of a muscle is the point where the end of a muscle gets attached. Malleus is a small bone present in the middle ear along with stapes and incus. Malleus is a hammer-shaped bone that has a handle. To this handle, the muscle attached. This muscle works on dampening the sounds which reach the middle ear but it is not a fast-acting muscle meaning that the response is slow due to which it fails to protect against very loud sounds and hearing damage may still occur.
Since tensor tympani gets inserted on to or is attached to the malleus.
Hence, option A is the correct answer.
Additional information:
The middle ear contains 3 bones which are Malleus, Incus, and Stapes. Among these, malleus is hammer-shaped, incus is anvil-shaped and stapes is stirrup-shaped. Malleus is towards the outer side and is connected to the outer ear through a round window, incus lies in the middle of the two bones while stapes lead to an oval window connecting the middle ear to the inner ear. These 3 bones are called ear ossicles of the ear and together help to amplify the sound reaching the middle ear and thus play an important role in the process of hearing. Two muscles attached to the ear ossicles are tensor tympani and stapedius. Tensor tympani is attached to Malleus while Stapedius is attached to the stapes bone.

Note: The attachments of middle ear muscles can be remembered easily in this way: Malleus is outermost so provides attachment to Tensor tympani, Stapes is the innermost and provides attachment to stapedius (can also be remembered by name) whereas Incus is the middle one and provides attachment to no muscle.