Research overview: macrosomatic vibrissae and the mystacial whisker array

The prominent whiskers on a cat muzzle, the mystacial vibrissae, form a precise tactile array, and this overview reviews their structure and arrangement. Thicker and more deeply rooted than ordinary hairs, each whisker sits in a richly innervated follicle and is arranged in an orderly grid that the cat can move and aim. The follicles report deflection to the brain in fine detail. Researchers map the array, its innervation, and its representation in the brain. Why it matters: the mystacial whiskers are a major sensory organ, giving cats close-range spatial information that vision cannot provide in the dark or at very short distances, and their orderly layout has made them, like the rodent whisker system, a valuable model for studying how the brain maps and processes touch.