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

Innervation of the gamma straddler vibrissa and distribution of individual gamma vibrissal sensory nerve fibers within infraorbital nerve branches wer e investigated in adult rats. In the close vicinity (2 mm) of the whisker-p ad, 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 s inus hairs. This convergence of gamma vibrissal sensory nerve fibers to sin gle vibrissa from neighboring nerves is suggested to be a consequence of ov erlapping vibrissal representation in the Gasserian ganglion. NeuroReport 1 1:849-851 (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.