The effect of long-term deprivation of Whisker on the lateralization of cerebral hemispheres and the discrimination of surfaces in male rats

The whisker movements in rodents project sensory information to the barrel cortex, allowing the animal to perceive its environment. Deprivation of whiskers may affect the animal's instinctive behavior towards the left or right side of the body. This study examined the impact of two months of whisker deprivation on brain hemisphere dominance and tissue level differentiation in rats.

Firstly, male Wistar rats were unilaterally deprived of whiskers (left or right) and bilaterally from birth to 60 days old. Then, the animals' preference was then studied using the tail suspension test at one month old, and the difference in roughness of two-month-old animals was evaluated using the tactile discrimination test.

Animals with unilateral whisker deprivation (right or left) showed a more tendency to turn left compared to the control and bilateral whisker-deprived groups. Additionally, the ability to distinguish roughness in both unilateral and bilateral whisker-deprived groups was impaired compared to the control group (p < 0.05).

Deprivation of whiskers reduces touch discriminations and can affect rats' preference for lateral superiority instinctive behavior.