ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2018
Whisker touch sensing guides locomotion in small, quadrupedal mammals.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 109 citations in OpenAlex.
- An elastic segment of the whisker shaft enables coding of the whisking phase via whisker torsion in rats and mice.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2026Article
- Complex Three-Dimensional Rearing Environments Amplify Compensatory Plasticity Following Early Blindness.eNeuro · 2026Article
- Peri-head distance coding in the mouse brainstem.Neuron · 2026Article
- Describing the whiskers of a semi-aquatic caniform: the Eurasian Otter (Journal of mammalogy · 2026Article
- REM-sleep twitching in adults and the maintenance of specialized sensorimotor systems.Current biology : CB · 2026Review
- Whisking Behaviour Reveals Stronger Evidence of Habituation in Homozygous Reeler Mice Compared to Controls.Genes, brain, and behavior · 2026Article
- Synapsids and sensitivity: Broad survey of tetrapod trigeminal canal morphology supports an evolutionary trend of increasing facial tactile specialization in the mammal lineage.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2026Article
- Vibrissal sensing in mammals in a changing world.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Review
- Can we study whisker movements to gain insights into the natural sensory behaviours of mammals?The Journal of physiology · 2025Review
- The Development of Facial Bristles in Tawny Frogmouths (Podargus strigoides).Developmental psychobiology · 2025Article
- Describing the musculature of mystacial pads in harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) using diceCT.Journal of anatomy · 2025Article
- Behavioral adaptations after unilateral whisker denervation.Behavioural brain research · 2025Article
- Article
- Comparative morphology of the whiskers and faces of mice (Mus musculus) and rats (Rattus norvegicus).The Journal of experimental biology · 2023Article
- On the intrinsic curvature of animal whiskers.PloS one · 2023Article
- Abnormal whisker movements in the 3xTg-AD mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.Genes, brain, and behavior · 2022Article
- A detailed behavioral, videographic, and neural dataset on object recognition in mice.Scientific data · 2022Article
- Spatial perception mediated by insect antennal mechanosensory system.The Journal of experimental biology · 2022Article
- California sea lions employ task-specific strategies for active touch sensing.The Journal of experimental biology · 2021Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
All small mammals have prominent facial whiskers that they employ as tactile sensors to guide navigation and foraging in complex habitats. Nocturnal, arboreal mammals tend to have the longest and most densely packed whiskers, and semi-aquatic mammals have the most sensitive. Here we present evidence to indicate that many small mammals use their whiskers to tactually guide safe foot positioning. Specifically, in 11, small, non-flying mammal species, we demonstrate that forepaw placement always falls within the ground contact zone of the whisker field and that forepaw width is always smaller than whisker span. We also demonstrate commonalities of whisker scanning movements (whisking) and elements of active control, associated with increasing contact with objects of interest, across multiple small mammal species that have previously only been shown in common laboratory animals. Overall, we propose that guiding locomotion, alongside environment exploration, is a common function of whisker touch sensing in small, quadrupedal mammals.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.