Tapered whiskers are required for active tactile sensation.
Tapered whiskers are required for active tactile sensation.
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DOI：
10.7554/elife.01350
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发表时间：
2013-11-19
期刊：
影响因子：
7.7
通讯作者：
Golomb D
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hires SA;Pammer L;Svoboda K;Golomb D
许多哺乳动物在黑暗的有限空间中觅食和挖洞。在这些活动中，通过面部胡须进行触摸很重要，但近距离使得胡须的部署具有挑战性。面部胡须的不同形状反映了不同的生态位。啮齿动物的胡须是圆锥形的，通常具有明显的线性锥度。在这里，我们使用理论和实验方法来分析小鼠胡须与物体的相互作用。当推入物体时，圆锥形晶须会突然以临界角度滑动。相比之下，圆柱形胡须不会因生物学上合理的运动而滑动。圆锥形胡须以短棍和滑的特征序列扫过物体和纹理，提供有关触觉世界的信息。相比之下，圆柱形晶须会粘住并保持粘住状态，即使扫过精细的纹理也是如此。因此，圆锥形晶须结构适用于受限环境中的传感器移动性以及物体和表面的主动触觉探索期间的特征提取。 DOI：http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01350.001 当在黑暗、密闭的空间中觅食时，哺乳动物利用胡须收集的信息来“看到”周围的世界。哺乳动物的胡须有各种形状和大小，很可能反映了它们的使用方式。啮齿类动物的胡须是圆锥形的，并且逐渐变细，而一些斑海豹的胡须是扁平的，具有波浪状的起伏。人的头发是圆柱形的。啮齿类动物用胡须在物体和表面上来回扫动，但头部不动。他们使用这个称为搅拌的过程来构建物体的三维图像。搅拌可以让啮齿动物估计物体的位置、大小以及表面纹理。例如，有关表面纹理的信息可以帮助动物区分石头和种子。希尔斯等人。使用理论和实验方法来分析小鼠胡须与物体的相互作用。老鼠胡须的圆锥形形状使得尖端比底部灵活数千倍。希尔斯等人。表明这种灵活性梯度允许胡须滑过靠近脸部的物体并在粗糙的表面上自由移动。另一方面，圆柱形晶须会卡在附近物体的后面，并卡在物体表面纹理的微小特征上。希尔斯等人。得出的结论是，圆锥形胡须在老鼠生活、觅食和社交的狭窄隧道中是有利的，因为它们能够收集周围环境的更完整的感官图景。当靠近粗糙的隧道壁时，胡须的可操纵性还允许小鼠向前或向后移动胡须。相比之下，圆柱形晶须所经历的粘附会导致“盲点”。除了深入了解小鼠与环境互动的方式之外，这项工作还可以改进视障人士用来导航人类环境的手杖的设计。 DOI：http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01350.002
Many mammals forage and burrow in dark constrained spaces. Touch through facial whiskers is important during these activities, but the close quarters makes whisker deployment challenging. The diverse shapes of facial whiskers reflect distinct ecological niches. Rodent whiskers are conical, often with a remarkably linear taper. Here we use theoretical and experimental methods to analyze interactions of mouse whiskers with objects. When pushed into objects, conical whiskers suddenly slip at a critical angle. In contrast, cylindrical whiskers do not slip for biologically plausible movements. Conical whiskers sweep across objects and textures in characteristic sequences of brief sticks and slips, which provide information about the tactile world. In contrast, cylindrical whiskers stick and remain stuck, even when sweeping across fine textures. Thus the conical whisker structure is adaptive for sensor mobility in constrained environments and in feature extraction during active haptic exploration of objects and surfaces. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01350.001 When foraging in dark, confined spaces, mammals use the information gathered by their whiskers to ‘see’ the world around them. Mammalian whiskers come in a variety of shapes and sizes, most likely reflecting the way in which they are used. Rodent whiskers are conical and precisely tapered, whereas some harbor seals have flattened whiskers with wave-like undulations. Human hair is cylindrical. Rodents sweep their whiskers back and forth over objects and surfaces without moving their head. They use this process, called whisking, to build up a three-dimensional picture of objects. Whisking allows the rodent to estimate where an object is located, how big it is, and what kind of surface texture it has. Information about surface texture can, for example, help the animal to distinguish a stone from a seed. Hires et al. have used theoretical and experimental methods to analyze the interaction of mouse whiskers with objects. The conical shape of a mouse whisker makes the tip thousands of times more flexible than the base. Hires et al. show that this flexibility gradient allows the whiskers to slip past objects close to the face and to move freely across rough surfaces. Cylindrical whiskers, on the other hand, become stuck behind nearby objects and get caught on tiny features in an object’s surface texture. Hires et al. conclude that conical whiskers are advantageous in the tight confines of the tunnels that mice live, forage and socialize in, because they are able to gather a more complete sensory picture of their surroundings. The maneuverability of the whiskers also allows the mouse to move their whiskers forwards or backwards when rough tunnel walls are close by. By contrast, the sticking experienced by cylindrical whiskers would lead to ‘blind spots’. In addition to providing insights into the ways that mice interact with their environment, this work could also lead to improvements in the design of the canes used by the visually impaired to navigate human environments. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01350.002