The temporal group of muscles controls the upper portion of your face, including your scalp, ears, forehead and eyebrows. The two auricular muscles, superior and anterior, are responsible for ear movement. Many people do not know how to flex these muscles in order to wiggle their ears. The muscles in this region are also responsible for opening and closing your eyelids, as well as the intricate movements of your eyebrows.
The zygomatic muscles in the face are located in the area of your cheeks. There are two muscles here that are responsible for smiling. The major and minor zygomatic arch muscles begin in front of your ear and stretch down to the corners of your mouth. When these muscles contract, the corners of your mouth will pull up into a smile. Anomolies in this group of muscles are what cause dimples.
The buccal group of muscles controls the nose and mouth and also aids in smiling. The nasalis muscles flair and compress the nostrils while the orbicularis muscle controls the lips. The risorious and buccinator muscles work in tandem with the major and minor zygomatic muscles in order to help you smile. The risorious muscle pulls the muscles at the corners of your mouth back laterally while the buccinator helps compress the cheeks.
Mandibular facial muscles control the chin and some lower lip movements. These muscles work with the other muscles in your face to pull your lips downward. They also work with the buccal muscles to pull down the corners of your mouth into a frown or a scowl. Mandibular muscles also work the pull the skin of the chin upward. Without these muscles working together, frowning and scowling would not be possible.
The cervical muscle group works together with the buccal and mandibular muscles to help pull down the corners of your mouth. All facial muscles connect directly to the skin on your face and without them, you would not be able to create any facial expressions. All five muscle groups work together with the five branches of facial nerves to animate your face. Many of these muscle movements are involuntary and controlled by emotions such as smiling while laughing or scowling or frowning when you are sad.