Evidence for Functional Groupings of Vibrissae across the Rodent Mystacial Pad
Fig 3
Definitions of contact angles during whisking behavior.
A. θimpact is defined as the angle between the rostral-caudal axis and the vector tangent to the base of the vibrissa when it first makes contact with the object. Note that the illustrated curvature of the whiskers reflects their intrinsic curvature and does not simulate the whisker bending against the surface. B. Color code for the different types of vibrissal-object contact. Vibrissae in contact with the surface before protraction begins (resting-contacts) are plotted as black circles on a schematic of the mystacial pad. Vibrissae that never contact the surface at any point during the whisk (“no-contacts”) are shown in gray. Vibrissae that make contact at a particular protraction value of the whisk are color coded according to θimpact.