Many rodents use whiskers to feel their way around their world. But rats appear to take this one step further, using special, antennae-like whiskers above their eyes to sense subtle air movement.
Many studies of rodents have focused on the snout whiskers, says Ann Clemens, a neuroscientist at the University of Edinburgh. But “there are a plethora of whiskers beyond the snout, on other parts of the face and the body.”
While working together on a research course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., Clemens and her colleagues noticed that some of the whiskers above rats’ eyes were particularly long and fine. The researchers wondered if these prominent, exposed hairs, known as supraorbital whiskers, could be used to detect wind.
“Wind is an important carrier of information about the environment in the form of odors, humidity and airflow, but has been barely studied by neuroscience,” says Matias Mugnaini, a neuroscientist at the Leloir Institute in Buenos Aires.
2023-07-06 13:00:00
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