ArticleFrontiers in neuroanatomy2014
Innervation patterns of sea otter (Enhydra lutris) mystacial follicle-sinus complexes.
Article in Frontiers in neuroanatomy, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Describing the whiskers of a semi-aquatic caniform: the Eurasian Otter (Journal of mammalogy · 2026Article
- A Review of the Application of Seal Whiskers in Vortex-Induced Vibration Suppression and Bionic Sensor Research.Micromachines · 2025Review
- Fossil brains provide evidence of underwater feeding in early seals.Communications biology · 2023Article
- Constraints on the deformation of the vibrissa within the follicle.PLoS computational biology · 2021Article
- Knowing when to stick: touch receptors found in the remora adhesive disc.Royal Society open science · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) are the most recent group of mammals to return to the sea, and may exemplify divergent somatosensory tactile systems among mammals. Therefore, we quantified the mystacial vibrissal array of sea otters and histologically processed follicle-sinus complexes (F - SCs) to test the hypotheses that the number of myelinated axons per F - SC is greater than that found for terrestrial mammalian vibrissae and that their organization and microstructure converge with those of pinniped vibrissae. A mean of 120.5 vibrissae were arranged rostrally on a broad, blunt muzzle in 7-8 rows and 9-13 columns. The F-SCs of sea otters are tripartite in their organization and similar in microstructure to pinnipeds rather than terrestrial species. Each F-SC was innervated by a mean 1339 ± 408.3 axons. Innervation to the entire mystacial vibrissal array was estimated at 161,313 axons. Our data support the hypothesis that the disproportionate expansion of the coronal gyrus in somatosensory cortex of sea otters is related to the high innervation investment of the mystacial vibrissal array, and that quantifying innervation investment is a good proxy for tactile sensitivity. We predict that the tactile performance of sea otter mystacial vibrissae is comparable to that of harbor seals, sea lions and walruses.
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