Neuroreport. 2000 Mar 20;11(4):849-51.

Innervation of a single vibrissa in the whisker-pad of rats.

Páli J, Rencz B, Hámori J.

Laboratory of Neurobiology, United Research Organization of Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Semmelweis University Medical School, Budapest, Hungary.
Innervation of the gamma straddler vibrissa and distribution of individual gamma vibrissal sensory nerve fibers within infraorbital nerve branches were investigated in adult rats. In the close vicinity (2 mm) of the whisker-pad, one-fifth of the nerve fibers innervating the gamma vibrissa were still located in nerves to neighboring (beta, delta, C1 and D1) whiskers, while one-tenth of the innervating fibers were placed in nerves of more distant sinus hairs. This convergence of gamma vibrissal sensory nerve fibers to single vibrissa from neighboring nerves is suggested to be a consequence of overlapping vibrissal representation in the Gasserian ganglion.

PMID: 10757532 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1075...