You can mute selected animation channels to temporarily disable the animation without disconnecting its curve from the animated object.
Muting lets you isolate and focus on a specific motion. When working with a model whose arms and legs are animated, you can use muting to turn off the animation of either the arms or legs.
In the Channel Box,
you can 
-click
selected channels and select the following options from the menu
that appears.
When you mute the animation channels of an object, a mute node is automatically created in the dependency graph for each muted channel.
The mute node in the Channel Box has the following format: mute_objectn_channel. Example mute node names include: mute_pCube1_translateX, mute_joint1_rotateZ and so on.
When the mute is set to on, all animation nodes that connect to the mute node are muted. When the mute is set to off, all animation nodes that connect to the mute node are not muted. Setting the mute node to off in the Channel Box does not remove it from the dependency graph.
Mute in the Graph Editor and Dope Sheet
When you mute an animated object’s keys or channels, a mute channel is generated for each animation channel.
You can view, manipulate, and add keys to this mute channel or curve in the Dope Sheet or Graph Editor. This is useful when you want to isolate and review specific parts of your animation.
When you edit a mute channel or curve, its corresponding animation curve automatically updates in the Dope Sheet and Graph Editor view areas.
A red icon appears beside a channel’s name when it is muted.
A green icon appears beside a channel’s name when it is not muted, but is still connected to a mute node. When the mute node is set to off in the Channel Box, the green icon still appears beside the channel’s name in the Graph Editor.
