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Nature Neuroscience May 2014When rodents engage in the exploration of novel stimuli, breathing occurs at an accelerated rate that is synchronous with whisking. We review the recently observed... (Review)
Review
When rodents engage in the exploration of novel stimuli, breathing occurs at an accelerated rate that is synchronous with whisking. We review the recently observed relationships between breathing and the sensations of smell and vibrissa-based touch. We consider the hypothesis that the breathing rhythm serves not only as a motor drive signal, but also as a common clock that binds these two senses into a common percept. This possibility may be extended to include taste through the coordination of licking with breathing. Here we evaluate the status of experimental evidence that pertains to this hypothesis.
Topics: Afferent Pathways; Animals; Brain; Neurons; Respiration; Sensation; Vibrissae
PubMed: 24762718
DOI: 10.1038/nn.3693 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Jun 2022The darkness of the deep ocean limits the vision of diving predators, except when prey emit bioluminescence. It is hypothesized that deep-diving seals rely on highly...
The darkness of the deep ocean limits the vision of diving predators, except when prey emit bioluminescence. It is hypothesized that deep-diving seals rely on highly developed whiskers to locate their prey. However, if and how seals use their whiskers while foraging in natural conditions remains unknown. We used animal-borne tags to show that free-ranging elephant seals use their whiskers for hydrodynamic prey sensing. Small, cheek-mounted video loggers documented seals actively protracting their whiskers in front of their mouths with rhythmic whisker movement, like terrestrial mammals exploring their environment. Seals focused their sensing effort at deep foraging depths, performing prolonged whisker protraction to detect, pursue, and capture prey. Feeding-event recorders with light sensors demonstrated that bioluminescence contributed to only about 20% of overall foraging success, confirming that whiskers play the primary role in sensing prey. Accordingly, visual prey detection complemented and enhanced prey capture. The whiskers' role highlights an evolutionary alternative to echolocation for adapting to the extreme dark of the deep ocean environment, revealing how sensory abilities shape foraging niche segregation in deep-diving mammals. Mammals typically have mobile facial whiskers, and our study reveals the significant function of whiskers in the natural foraging behavior of a marine predator. We demonstrate the importance of field-based sensory studies incorporating multimodality to better understand how multiple sensory systems are complementary in shaping the foraging success of predators.
Topics: Animals; Feeding Behavior; Hydrodynamics; Predatory Behavior; Seals, Earless; Vibrissae
PubMed: 35696561
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2119502119 -
Proceedings. Biological Sciences Feb 2023Whiskers are important tactile structures widely used across mammals for a variety of sensory functions, but it is not known how bats-representing about a fifth of all...
Whiskers are important tactile structures widely used across mammals for a variety of sensory functions, but it is not known how bats-representing about a fifth of all extant mammal species-use them. Nectar-eating bats typically have long vibrissae (long, stiff hairs) arranged in a forward-facing brush-like formation that is not present in most non-nectarivorous bats. They also commonly use a unique flight strategy to access their food-hovering flight. Here we investigated whether these species use their vibrissae to optimize their feeding by assisting fine flight control. We used behavioural experiments to test if bats' flight trajectory into the flower changed after vibrissa removal, and phylogenetic comparative methods to test whether vibrissa length is related to nectarivory. We found that bat flight trajectory was altered after vibrissae removal and that nectarivorous bats possess longer vibrissae than non-nectivorous species, providing evidence of an additional source of information in bats' diverse sensory toolkit.
Topics: Animals; Chiroptera; Vibrissae; Phylogeny; Flowers; Food
PubMed: 36722088
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.2085 -
Neuron Nov 1999
Review
Topics: Animals; Exploratory Behavior; Neural Inhibition; Neuronal Plasticity; Rats; Sensory Deprivation; Somatosensory Cortex; Vibrissae
PubMed: 10595498
DOI: 10.1016/s0896-6273(00)81101-0 -
PloS One 2013Previous studies show that humans have a large genomic deletion downstream of the Androgen Receptor gene that eliminates an ancestral mammalian regulatory enhancer that...
Previous studies show that humans have a large genomic deletion downstream of the Androgen Receptor gene that eliminates an ancestral mammalian regulatory enhancer that drives expression in developing penile spines and sensory vibrissae. Here we use a combination of large-scale sequence analysis and PCR amplification to demonstrate that the penile spine/vibrissa enhancer is missing in all humans surveyed and in the Neandertal and Denisovan genomes, but is present in DNA samples of chimpanzees and bonobos, as well as in multiple other great apes and primates that maintain some form of penile integumentary appendage and facial vibrissae. These results further strengthen the association between the presence of the penile spine/vibrissa enhancer and the presence of penile spines and macro- or micro- vibrissae in non-human primates as well as show that loss of the enhancer is both a distinctive and characteristic feature of the human lineage.
Topics: Animals; Enhancer Elements, Genetic; Extinction, Biological; Genome, Human; Humans; Male; Molecular Sequence Data; Penis; Primates; Receptors, Androgen; Sequence Analysis; Somatosensory Cortex; Species Specificity; Vibrissae
PubMed: 24367647
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0084258 -
The Journal of Neuroscience : the... May 2018Little is known about whether information transfer at primary sensory thalamic nuclei is modified by behavioral context. Here we studied the influence of previous...
Little is known about whether information transfer at primary sensory thalamic nuclei is modified by behavioral context. Here we studied the influence of previous decisions/rewards on current choices and preceding spike responses of ventroposterior medial thalamus (VPm; the primary sensory thalamus in the rat whisker-related tactile system). We trained head-fixed rats to detect a ramp-like deflection of one whisker interspersed within ongoing white noise stimulation. Using generative modeling of behavior, we identify two task-related variables that are predictive of actual decisions. The first reflects task engagement on a local scale ("trial history": defined as the decisions and outcomes of a small number of past trials), whereas the other captures behavioral dynamics on a global scale ("satiation": slow dynamics of the response pattern along an entire session). Although satiation brought about a slow drift from Go to NoGo decisions during the session, trial history was related to local (trial-by-trial) patterning of Go and NoGo decisions. A second model that related the same predictors first to VPm spike responses, and from there to decisions, indicated that spiking, in contrast to behavior, is sensitive to trial history but relatively insensitive to satiation. Trial history influences VPm spike rates and regularity such that a history of Go decisions would predict fewer noise-driven spikes (but more regular ones), and more ramp-driven spikes. Neuronal activity in VPm, thus, is sensitive to local behavioral history, and may play an important role in higher-order cognitive signaling. It is an important question for perceptual and brain functions to find out whether cognitive signals modulate the sensory signal stream and if so, where in the brain this happens. This study provides evidence that decision and reward history can already be reflected in the ascending sensory pathway, on the level of first-order sensory thalamus. Cognitive signals are relayed very selectively such that only local trial history (spanning a few trials) but not global history (spanning an entire session) are reflected.
Topics: Algorithms; Animals; Biomechanical Phenomena; Brain Mapping; Cognition; Decision Making; Female; Linear Models; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Signal Detection, Psychological; Somatosensory Cortex; Thalamus; Touch; Vibrissae
PubMed: 29703788
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2403-17.2018 -
The Journal of Physiology May 2019
Topics: Animals; Cerebral Cortex; Mice; Neurons; Somatosensory Cortex; Vibrissae; Wakefulness
PubMed: 30931533
DOI: 10.1113/JP278049 -
Neurotherapeutics : the Journal of the... Jul 2018Spinal cord injury (SCI) often results in impaired or absent sensorimotor function below the level of the lesion. Recent electrophysiological studies in humans with... (Review)
Review
Spinal cord injury (SCI) often results in impaired or absent sensorimotor function below the level of the lesion. Recent electrophysiological studies in humans with chronic incomplete SCI demonstrate that voluntary motor output can be to some extent potentiated by noninvasive stimulation that targets the corticospinal tract. We discuss emerging approaches that use transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the primary motor cortex and electrical stimulation over a peripheral nerve as tools to induce plasticity in residual corticospinal projections. A single TMS pulse over the primary motor cortex has been paired with peripheral nerve electrical stimulation at precise interstimulus intervals to reinforce corticospinal synaptic transmission using principles of spike-timing dependent plasticity. Pairs of TMS pulses have also been used at interstimulus intervals that mimic the periodicity of descending indirect (I) waves volleys in the corticospinal tract. This data, along with information about the extent of the injury, provides a new framework for exploring the contribution of the corticospinal tract to recovery of function following SCI.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Motor Cortex; Neuronal Plasticity; Pyramidal Tracts; Spinal Cord Injuries; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; Vibrissae
PubMed: 29946981
DOI: 10.1007/s13311-018-0639-y -
Anatomical Record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) Jul 2015Coordinated action of facial muscles during whisking, sniffing, and touching objects is an important component of active sensing in rodents. Accumulating evidence...
Coordinated action of facial muscles during whisking, sniffing, and touching objects is an important component of active sensing in rodents. Accumulating evidence suggests that the anatomical schemes that underlie active sensing are similar across the majority of whisking rodents. Intriguingly, however, muscle architecture in the mystacial pad of the mouse was reported to be different, possessing only one extrinsic vibrissa protracting muscle (M. nasalis) in the rostral part of the snout. In this study, the organization of the muscles that move the nose and the mystacial vibrissae in mice was re-examined and compared with that reported previously in other rodents. We found that muscle distribution within the mystacial pad and around the tip of the nose in mice is isomorphic with that found in other whisking rodents. In particular, in the rostral part of the mouse snout, we describe both protractors and retractors of the vibrissae. Nose movements are controlled by the M. dilator nasi and five subunits of the M. nasolabialis profundus, with involvement of the nasal cartilaginous skeleton as a mediator in the muscular effort translation.
Topics: Animals; Exploratory Behavior; Facial Muscles; Mice; Movement; Nose; Touch; Vibrissae
PubMed: 25408106
DOI: 10.1002/ar.23102 -
Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis 1988The anatomy, cytoarchitectonics and unit responses of the vibrissal barrel field make it a good subject for studying the central effects of peripheral receptor... (Review)
Review
The anatomy, cytoarchitectonics and unit responses of the vibrissal barrel field make it a good subject for studying the central effects of peripheral receptor manipulations. The paper reviews the properties of the barrel system and the evidence for columnar functioning of the barrel cortex. The plastic changes of the single vibrissal column visualized with 2-deoxyglucose autoradiography are described. Cortical plasticity was evoked by vibrissal receptor lesions, deprivation or repetitive stimulation in neonatal and adult rats. The possible processes participating in changing the appearance of the cortical column are discussed. The role of reshaping of intracortical connections within the barrel field is suggested as an important mechanism of plasticity of the vibrissal cortical columns.
Topics: Animals; Brain Mapping; Neuronal Plasticity; Rats; Somatosensory Cortex; Vibrissae
PubMed: 3048057
DOI: No ID Found