How do mammals even sense their surroundings? That’s a question that’s baffled biologists for a while. But a recent study published shows that whiskers may play a vital role in this process.
If you’ve ever tried whiskers, you know how they feel: they’re soft, flimsy, and they don’t feel like the hairs of an actual animal. Put on a pair of gloves and touch a cat’s whiskers, and you’ll feel the difference. Touch a dog’s whiskers, and you’ll feel the difference.
A small study in 2011 showed that a cat’s whiskers are extremely sensitive, but how do they work? Scientists have now created a simulation of a cat’s whiskers that can recreate the whisker’s motion, including the way they bend and flex, to replicate how cats’ whiskers move on their bodies.
Mammals and Whiskers
Most people have heard of a whisker or tactile hair, but do you know what it is and how it works? If not, then check out Canine Journal (or a similar resource) to find the answers. Speaking briefly, whiskers are small white-and-black hair-like projections that are typically found on cats and dogs. They are located in the mouth, on the lips and tongue, on the face, and along the arms and legs. They also exist in humans, but their function is different.
The use of whiskers has long been a feature that differentiates mammals from other mammals. Unlike snakes that use heat-sensing pits, bats use their sensitive whiskers to detect the temperature of their surroundings. Bats use their whiskers to navigate through dark caves, search for prey and even detect fruit.
It looks like whiskers aren’t just for cats and dogs. A team of researchers has proven for the first time that whiskers can be used to simulate the sense of touch in humans.
The Simulation
The whisker simulation, or whisker-skin tactile simulator, is a tool that allows us to take a closer look at the process by which we feel something touch us. While we all know what it feels like to touch something, the problem is that we cannot see it. Whiskers are the only part of a mammal’s body that can detect something touching it. They are covered in tiny sensory receptors called Merkel disks which are constantly on the alert and can often be mistaken for an itch, tickle, or pain. While we can only see two of these “whisker” protrusions on each side of the face, in reality, these are made up of much more numerous hairs covering a much bigger surface.
The Whisker Insights
Have you ever wondered how you can tell if something is warm or cold? Researchers have discovered that you can tell by the way a moleskin glove feels. In fact, different areas of the glove correspond to different temperatures. They have created a whisker simulation that works in the same way. The whisker simulation was able to determine which area was warm and which was cold. This information could be used by dermatologists to aid in the diagnosis of skin conditions.
It takes a while to get used to wearing a Whisker Simulator on your face, but once you get used to the sensation of the machine’s vibrations, you’ll find it very insightful. In my experience, the Whisker Simulator helps give you a better understanding of your sense of touch. The machine’s vibrations help you to feel the difference between a light touch and a firm touch and to feel the difference between a smooth surface and a rough one.
Whiskers and the Sense of Touch
Why is it that we can only feel the things that touch our skin? When we run our fingers over a table, the table doesn’t run its fingers over our fingers. And yet, our whiskers do. The reason for this is that our whiskers are so sensitive that they can feel the slightest breeze. This extra sense is called vibrissae. There are several different types of whiskers, but the most important for our purposes is the vibrissae on our faces.
When we think of touch sensation in humans, we often think of our skin touching objects. But our bodies also use a sense of touch that involves whiskers, which are sensory hairs on our heads that help us navigate our environment.
Whiskers are an integral part of our animal senses, yet we know almost nothing about how they work. When we touch something, the tactile information we receive from our fingertips travels along the skin and nerve to the whiskers, where it is converted into an electrical signal. This signal is then relayed directly into the brain, providing us with a direct sense of touch.