It passes medial to the zygomatic arch (cheekbone) and inserts onto the coronoid process of the mandible. The muscle is broad, fan-shaped and used to crush food with the molars.

The temporal muscle is found beneath the temporal fascia and can be felt working as the teeth are clenched and unclenched because this contracts the muscle.

The function of the temporalis muscle is to control both retraction and elevation of the mandible (jaw bone). It is covered laterally by the Auricularis anterior and superior, by the Galea Aponeurotica, and by part of the Orbicularis oculi.

The superficial temporal vessels and the auriculotemporal nerve cross it from below upward. It is a single layer muscle from the fanned out shape toward the zygomatic process which is the entire extent of the superior temporal line, but at the zygomatic arch, it becomes two layered. One is inserted into the lateral and the other is inserted into the medial border of the arch. There is a small amount of fat, the orbital branch of the superficial temporal artery, and a filament from the zygomatic branch of the maxillary nerve, contained between these two layers. Its’ deep surface attachment is to the superficial fibers of the Temporalis.