TikTok’s Dr Karan Raj has come to the rescue with a lucid and friendly explainer on what he calls “jaw tentacles” and an “alien soul patch”.
“You have bone tentacles,” he begins. “And they’re weird.” No, he might not be using the most technical language, but he does come to that. The TikTok star goes on to explain what the mentalis muscle does, and why it’s different from most other muscles in the human body. Don’t worry, he explains that what may be a “hardware glitch” is definitely not any cause for concern when it comes to your health.
Face muscles are different from most others
As Dr Karan Raj, aka dr.karanr, explains in a recent TikTok video (embedded below), most of the muscles of the human body connect bone to bone. This is because the purpose of those muscles is to enable us to move our limbs and digits.
Dr Raj describes the setup as a “biological pulley system” that allows bones to “yeet” other bones. See, lucid and friendly!
But the purpose of the muscles we have in our faces isn’t to operate the skeleton. Not all of them, anyway. And the mentalis muscle is the perfect example. It connects your skull directly to your skin.
For this reason, tensing it – such as when expressing certain emotions – can produce a strange, lattice-like pattern of dimples on your chin.
From ‘invisible alien soul patch’ to ‘jaw tentacles’
The graphics Dr Raj uses to illustrate his explanation of the mentalis muscle’s appearance and operation do indeed make it look like a bundle of colorful jaw tentacles.
Or, to put it another way, “an invisible alien soul patch growing on your jaw”.
As he explains in his unique style, when this “hidden bone beard contracts, it causes puckering and dimpling around the chin”. He likens it to the rough texture of an orange peel, with its uneven surface of tiny craters.
If you tense your chin in a particular way – as long as you haven’t got an actual beard covering it – you may be able to achieve this dimpling effect. This “pebble chin” effect, Dr Raj continues, can also happen as a result of muscular overactivity or a “chronic spasm”.
The mentalis muscle’s name contains a clue
In the video, Dr Raj mentions a hypothesis that the purpose of the mentalis muscle is purely to enable humans to emote, meaning to express emotion.
Healthline’s description of the mentalis muscle adds that it provides stability to the lower lip, and allows it to pout. Moreover, it elevates the skin of the chin and causes “protrusion of the lower lip”. Raising the lower lip – and you can try this at home if you haven’t already – results in “elevation and wrinkling of the chin’s skin”.
The mentalis muscle got its name because we associate it with emotional and thoughtful facial expressions. Which lends credence to Dr Raj’s theory that its sole purpose is to express emotions.
One TikTok user wrote in the comments section that they’re “more horrified than I expected”, upon learning this information. Others are more titillated than terrified.
