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Supra-orbital whiskers act as wind-sensing antennae in rats

We know little about mammalian anemotaxis or wind sensing. Recently, however, Hartmann and colleagues showed whisker-based anemotaxis in rats. To investigate how whiskers sense airflow, we first tracked whisker tips in anesthetized rats under low (0.5 m/s) and high (1.5 m/s) airflow. Whisker tips sh...

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Autores principales: Mugnaini, Matias, Mehrotra, Dhruv, Davoine, Federico, Sharma, Varun, Mendes, Ana Rita, Gerhardt, Ben, Concha-Miranda, Miguel, Brecht, Michael, Clemens, Ann M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10325054/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37410722
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002168
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author Mugnaini, Matias
Mehrotra, Dhruv
Davoine, Federico
Sharma, Varun
Mendes, Ana Rita
Gerhardt, Ben
Concha-Miranda, Miguel
Brecht, Michael
Clemens, Ann M.
author_facet Mugnaini, Matias
Mehrotra, Dhruv
Davoine, Federico
Sharma, Varun
Mendes, Ana Rita
Gerhardt, Ben
Concha-Miranda, Miguel
Brecht, Michael
Clemens, Ann M.
author_sort Mugnaini, Matias
collection PubMed
description We know little about mammalian anemotaxis or wind sensing. Recently, however, Hartmann and colleagues showed whisker-based anemotaxis in rats. To investigate how whiskers sense airflow, we first tracked whisker tips in anesthetized rats under low (0.5 m/s) and high (1.5 m/s) airflow. Whisker tips showed increasing movement from low to high airflow conditions, with all whisker tips moving during high airflow. Low airflow conditions—most similar to naturally occurring wind stimuli—engaged whisker tips differentially. Most whiskers moved little, but the long supra-orbital (lSO) whisker showed maximal displacement, followed by the α, β, and A1 whiskers. The lSO whisker differs from other whiskers in its exposed dorsal position, upward bending, length and thin diameter. Ex vivo extracted lSO whiskers also showed exceptional airflow displacement, suggesting whisker-intrinsic biomechanics mediate the unique airflow-sensitivity. Micro computed tomography (micro-CT) revealed that the ring-wulst—the follicle structure receiving the most sensitive afferents—was more complete/closed in the lSO, and other wind-sensitive whiskers, than in non-wind-sensitive whiskers, suggesting specialization of the supra-orbital for omni-directional sensing. We localized and targeted the cortical supra-orbital whisker representation in simultaneous Neuropixels recordings with D/E-row whisker barrels. Responses to wind-stimuli were stronger in the supra-orbital whisker representation than in D/E-row barrel cortex. We assessed the behavioral significance of whiskers in an airflow-sensing paradigm. We observed that rats spontaneously turn towards airflow stimuli in complete darkness. Selective trimming of wind-responsive whiskers diminished airflow turning responses more than trimming of non-wind-responsive whiskers. Lidocaine injections targeted to supra-orbital whisker follicles also diminished airflow turning responses compared to control injections. We conclude that supra-orbital whiskers act as wind antennae.
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spelling pubmed-103250542023-07-07 Supra-orbital whiskers act as wind-sensing antennae in rats Mugnaini, Matias Mehrotra, Dhruv Davoine, Federico Sharma, Varun Mendes, Ana Rita Gerhardt, Ben Concha-Miranda, Miguel Brecht, Michael Clemens, Ann M. PLoS Biol Research Article We know little about mammalian anemotaxis or wind sensing. Recently, however, Hartmann and colleagues showed whisker-based anemotaxis in rats. To investigate how whiskers sense airflow, we first tracked whisker tips in anesthetized rats under low (0.5 m/s) and high (1.5 m/s) airflow. Whisker tips showed increasing movement from low to high airflow conditions, with all whisker tips moving during high airflow. Low airflow conditions—most similar to naturally occurring wind stimuli—engaged whisker tips differentially. Most whiskers moved little, but the long supra-orbital (lSO) whisker showed maximal displacement, followed by the α, β, and A1 whiskers. The lSO whisker differs from other whiskers in its exposed dorsal position, upward bending, length and thin diameter. Ex vivo extracted lSO whiskers also showed exceptional airflow displacement, suggesting whisker-intrinsic biomechanics mediate the unique airflow-sensitivity. Micro computed tomography (micro-CT) revealed that the ring-wulst—the follicle structure receiving the most sensitive afferents—was more complete/closed in the lSO, and other wind-sensitive whiskers, than in non-wind-sensitive whiskers, suggesting specialization of the supra-orbital for omni-directional sensing. We localized and targeted the cortical supra-orbital whisker representation in simultaneous Neuropixels recordings with D/E-row whisker barrels. Responses to wind-stimuli were stronger in the supra-orbital whisker representation than in D/E-row barrel cortex. We assessed the behavioral significance of whiskers in an airflow-sensing paradigm. We observed that rats spontaneously turn towards airflow stimuli in complete darkness. Selective trimming of wind-responsive whiskers diminished airflow turning responses more than trimming of non-wind-responsive whiskers. Lidocaine injections targeted to supra-orbital whisker follicles also diminished airflow turning responses compared to control injections. We conclude that supra-orbital whiskers act as wind antennae. Public Library of Science 2023-07-06 /pmc/articles/PMC10325054/ /pubmed/37410722 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002168 Text en © 2023 Mugnaini et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Mugnaini, Matias
Mehrotra, Dhruv
Davoine, Federico
Sharma, Varun
Mendes, Ana Rita
Gerhardt, Ben
Concha-Miranda, Miguel
Brecht, Michael
Clemens, Ann M.
Supra-orbital whiskers act as wind-sensing antennae in rats
title Supra-orbital whiskers act as wind-sensing antennae in rats
title_full Supra-orbital whiskers act as wind-sensing antennae in rats
title_fullStr Supra-orbital whiskers act as wind-sensing antennae in rats
title_full_unstemmed Supra-orbital whiskers act as wind-sensing antennae in rats
title_short Supra-orbital whiskers act as wind-sensing antennae in rats
title_sort supra-orbital whiskers act as wind-sensing antennae in rats
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10325054/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37410722
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002168
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