The advantages of a tapered whisker.

PloS One
Christopher M Williams, Eric M Kramer

Abstract

The role of facial vibrissae (whiskers) in the behavior of terrestrial mammals is principally as a supplement or substitute for short-distance vision. Each whisker in the array functions as a mechanical transducer, conveying forces applied along the shaft to mechanoreceptors in the follicle at the whisker base. Subsequent processing of mechanoreceptor output in the trigeminal nucleus and somatosensory cortex allows high accuracy discriminations of object distance, direction, and surface texture. The whiskers of terrestrial mammals are tapered and approximately circular in cross section. We characterize the taper of whiskers in nine mammal species, measure the mechanical deflection of isolated felid whiskers, and discuss the mechanics of a single whisker under static and oscillatory deflections. We argue that a tapered whisker provides some advantages for tactile perception (as compared to a hypothetical untapered whisker), and that this may explain why the taper has been preserved during the evolution of terrestrial mammals.

References

Jan 1, 1975·Annual Review of Entomology·S B McIver
Jul 1, 1986·Veterinary Research Communications·A S Ahl
Dec 1, 1973·The Journal of Physiology·K M GottschaldtD W Young
Jan 1, 1995·Somatosensory & Motor Research·G E Carvell, D J Simons
Mar 1, 1997·Behavioural Brain Research·M BrechtM M Merzenich
Feb 13, 2001·Journal of Neuroscience Methods·D J KrupaM A Nicolelis
Oct 9, 2002·The Quarterly Review of Biology·Richard O Prum, Alan H Brush
Aug 1, 1954·The Anatomical Record·N CAUNA
Dec 4, 2003·Neuron·Marcin SzwedEhud Ahissar
Jan 22, 2005·PLoS Biology·Ehsan ArabzadehMathew E Diamond
Dec 13, 2005·Journal of Neurophysiology·Joerg HippPeter König
Dec 17, 2005·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Lewis G Tilney, David J DeRosier
Mar 21, 2006·Nature Neuroscience·Mark L Andermann, Christopher I Moore
Aug 18, 2006·The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience·Per Magne KnutsenEhud Ahissar
Oct 7, 2006·Nature·Joseph H Solomon, Mitra J Hartmann
Mar 3, 2007·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Ben MitchinsonTony J Prescott
Apr 17, 2007·Pflügers Archiv : European journal of physiology·Maurice J Kernan
Jun 8, 2007·Journal of Neurophysiology·J Alexander BirdwellMitra J Z Hartmann
Nov 16, 2007·PLoS Biology·Moritz von HeimendahlMathew E Diamond
May 12, 2009·Nature Neuroscience·Shantanu P JadhavDaniel E Feldman

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Citations

Nov 21, 2013·ELife·Samuel Andrew HiresDavid Golomb
Oct 5, 2011·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Joseph H Solomon, Mitra J Z Hartmann
Oct 5, 2011·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Martin J PearsonTony J Prescott
Oct 14, 2011·Journal of Biomechanics·Brian W QuistMitra J Z Hartmann
Nov 14, 2015·Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology·Samata KattaMiriam B Goodman
Apr 15, 2015·The Anatomical Record : Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology·Summer E DrakeJ G M Thewissen
Feb 20, 2014·Current Opinion in Neurobiology·Miguel Maravall, Mathew E Diamond
Nov 22, 2011·Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials·Jan-Henning Dirks, Volker Dürr
Jun 12, 2012·Progress in Neurobiology·Mathew E Diamond, Ehsan Arabzadeh
Feb 2, 2016·IEEE Transactions on Haptics·Lucie A Huet, Mitra J Z Hartmann
Nov 21, 2012·Developmental Biology·Michael T Veeman, William C Smith
Sep 16, 2016·Current Opinion in Neurobiology·Nicholas E BushMitra Jz Hartmann
Jun 15, 2017·ELife·Jacopo RigosaMathew E Diamond
Nov 25, 2016·Journal of Neurophysiology·Hayley M BelliMitra J Z Hartmann
Nov 18, 2016·Journal of Neurophysiology·S J Sterbing-D'AngeloC F Moss
Jul 1, 2017·Journal of Neurophysiology·George E Carvell, Daniel J Simons
Apr 1, 2016·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Yan S W YuMitra J Z Hartmann
Jul 2, 2015·PloS One·Carly C Ginter SummarellChristopher D Marshall
Jun 1, 2018·Journal of the Royal Society, Interface·Madeleine SealeNaomi Nakayama
Jun 3, 2016·Journal of Neurophysiology·Samuel Andrew HiresDavid Golomb
Aug 2, 2020·Journal of Morphology·Gary DougillRobyn A Grant
Apr 14, 2015·Journal of Neurophysiology·Lucie A HuetMitra J Z Hartmann
Sep 13, 2019·Sensors·Moritz ScharffCarsten Behn
Jul 30, 2017·Sensors·Sejoon Ahn, DaeEun Kim
Feb 28, 2019·Journal of Neurophysiology·Anne En-Tzu YangMitra J Z Hartmann
Apr 14, 2019·The Anatomical Record : Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology·Aubree Jones, Christopher D Marshall
Jun 10, 2020·Soft Robotics·David W CollinsonLynda Catherine Brinson
Jun 17, 2020·Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery·Jennifer E Slovak, Taylor E Foster
Dec 8, 2020·Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience·Jan-Harm L F BettingChris I De Zeeuw
Jan 20, 2021·Soft Robotics·Nhan Huu Nguyen, Van Anh Ho
Feb 3, 2021·Bioinspiration & Biomimetics·Yani JiangYiXiang Bian
Jul 12, 2014·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Jean-Michel MongeauRobert J Full
Oct 27, 2021·Journal of the Royal Society, Interface·Xingwen ZhengAjay Giri Prakash Kottapalli

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Software Mentioned

Maple
Kaleidagraph
Synergy

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Barrel cortex

Here is the latest research on barrel cortex, a region of somatosensory and motor corticies in the brain, which are used by animals that rely on whiskers for world exploration.

Related Papers

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience
Eran Lottem, Rony Azouz
The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience
D J KrupaMiguel A L Nicolelis
© 2021 Meta ULC. All rights reserved