The anatomical representations of the large facial whiskers, termed barrels, are topographically organized and highly segregated in the posteromedial barrel subfield (PMBSF) of rat layer IV primary somatosensory cortex. Although the functional representations of single whiskers are aligned with their appropriate barrels, their areal extents are rather large, spreading outward from the appropria...

The purpose of this study was to investigate how aragonite (calcium carbonate) whiskers influenced the strengthening and carbonating of alpha-tricalcium phosphate (alpha-TCP) based calcium phosphate cement. Aragonite whiskers of 0.95 microm width with an aspect ratio of 6.6 were prepared. The cement powder, alpha-TCP containing 0-50 mass% aragonite whisker, was mixed with 0.6 mol/L NaH2PO4 solu...

Examination of Jurassic decapod crustaceans associated with microbialite-siliceous sponge biostromes in Gura Dobrogei, eastern Romania, has yielded a unique association of these organisms. Goniodromites aliquantulus new species appears to have inhabited layered sponge biostrome settings only, whereas Cycloprosopon dobrogea and Goniodromites spp. appear to have inhabited a variety of microbialit...

The spatial organization of the anatomical structures along the trigeminal afferent pathway of the rat conserves the topographical order of the receptor sheath: The brainstem barrelettes, thalamic barreloids, and cortical barrels all reflect the arrangement of whiskers across the mystacial pad. Although both the amount of innervation in the mystacial pad and the size of cortical barrels were sh...

The mystacial vibrissae or whiskers in rodents are sensitive tactile hairs emerging from both sides of the face. Rats and mice actively move these whiskers during exploration. The neuronal mechanisms controlling whisker movements and the sensory representation of whisker tactile information are widely studied as a model for sensorimotor processing in mammals. Studies of the natural whisker move...

All mammals, apart from humans and primates, have facial ‘whiskers’. Rodents are "whisker specialists" and have more than 30 whiskers on each side of their face, which they use to gather tactile sensory data on their near surroundings. Many rodents (including rats, discussed here) actively move their whiskers back and forth in a behaviour known as ‘whisking’. In attempting to understand this se...

The elimination of lead in electronic equipment due to governmental regulations (European Union End of Life Vehicle Directive and European Union Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive) has increased the risk of electrical shorting due to the formation of tin whiskers in electronic products. Tin whiskers are hair-like tin structures that grow sporadically on surfaces coated with tin. Whis...

Rats explore their surroundings through rhythmic movement of their mystacial vibrissae. At any given moment, multiple whiskers are simultaneously moved and may contact the surface of an object. The aim of this work is to understand how simultaneous multiple-whisker deflections are processed in the somatosensory cortex. Arrays of 25 electrodes were inserted into the vibrissal representation of b...

The problem of tin (Sn) whiskers has been a significant reliability issue in electronics for the past several decades. Despite the large amount of research conducted on this issue, a solution for mitigating the growth of whiskers remains a challenge for the research community. Whiskers have unpredictable growth and morphology, and a study of a whisker’s internal structure may provide further in...