A team of neurobiologists and neuroscientists at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory has discovered that sub-orbital whiskers are involved in helping rats determine the direction of air movement and respond accordingly. In their study of rat whiskers, published in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, the group explains their findings.
The research began when the team noticed the lack of research on wind sensing in mammals. To learn more, they focused their efforts on studying rats and their whiskers. Previous research has shown that rats use their whiskers for various purposes, including sensing air movement. However, the team observed that the sub-orbital whiskers, located above the eye, had not been included in previous studies. These whiskers are few in number but quite long. To understand their purpose, the researchers conducted several tests.
The first test involved anesthetizing several rats and exposing them to different amounts of airflow (wind). This allowed the team to analyze and measure the movement of the whiskers under different conditions. They discovered that the sub-orbital whiskers behaved differently from the nose whiskers. Due to their length, they were more displaced under low wind conditions. Additionally, the sub-orbital whiskers tended to bend upward more than other whiskers on the face.
Next, the team performed micro-CT scans on the rats, focusing specifically on their sub-orbital whisker follicles. They found slight differences in the follicles compared to other whiskers—the nerves were arranged in a way that allowed for more precise sensing of direction changes. This enabled the rats to accurately perceive the direction of air movement around them.
The research team then created simulations to demonstrate how rats might use their whiskers to track wind direction and intensity. They discovered that the response to wind was much more acute in the sub-orbital whiskers.
2023-07-07 15:48:03
Source from phys.org rnrn