Buccinator muscle the cheek area, which aids in holding the cheek to the teeth during chewing. This action causes the muscle to keep food pushed back on the occlusal surface of the posterior teeth, as when a person chews. By keeping the food in the correct position when chewing, the buccinator assists the muscles of mastication. It aids whistling and smiling, and in neonates it is used to suckle. In the past the buccinator muscle was also written as bucinator muscle. A "bucinator" in classical Latin is a trumpeter, or more precisely, the person who blows the "bucina". The name "bucina" could
Reduced muscle mass, strength and performance in space vascular changes, including a significant decrease in red blood cell mass, that affect skeletal muscle function. This normal adaptive response to the microgravity environment is, for the most part, of little consequence within the space vehicle "per se", but may become a liability resulting in increased risk of an inability or decreased efficiency in crewmember performance of physically demanding tasks during extravehicular activity (EVA) or abrupt transitions to environments of increased gravity (return to Earth, landing on the surface of another planetary body). In the U.S. human space program, the only in-flight countermeasure to skeletal muscle functional deficits that has