We developed a biomechanical model of the whisking motor plant that incorporates the measured muscular mechanics along with movement vectors observed from direct muscle stimulation in anesthetized rats. maxillolabialis to pull the pad and the vibrissae backward. nasalis and intrinsic muscle activity and the contraction of the caudal extrinsic muscles m. Third, retraction involves the cessation of m.

Second, late in protraction, the intrinsic muscles pivot the vibrissae farther forward. First, the vibrissae are thrust forward as the rostral extrinsic muscle, musculus (m.) nasalis, contracts to pull the pad and initiate protraction. Our essential finding is that the periodic motion of the vibrissae and mystacial pad during whisking results from three phases of muscle activity. Our approach made use of electromyography to measure the activation of all relevant muscles in both head-fixed and unrestrained rats and two-dimensional imaging to monitor the position of the vibrissae in head-fixed rats. We used the rat vibrissa system as a model for active sensing and determined the pattern of muscle activity that drives rhythmic exploratory whisking. The biomechanics of a motor plant constrain the behavioral strategies that an animal has available to extract information from its environment.

Rat fink ink stamp set