{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,14]],"date-time":"2026-08-14T21:39:47Z","timestamp":1786743587028,"version":"build-2736575974"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,12]]},"group-title":"Neuroscience","reference-count":19,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,12]],"date-time":"2026-08-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1786492800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000002","name":"National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000002","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04cnxht64","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"UCL Bogue fellowship"},{"name":"Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics Travel Grant"},{"name":"Agency of Science, Technology and Research Singapore National Science Scholarship"},{"name":"St Hugh\u2019s College Barbinder Watson Fund"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>\n                  The perception of stickiness is known to everyone who interacts with the world. While eating, walking, and navigating diverse environments including crowded subways, forests, fields and lunchrooms, stickiness is a common and old sensation. Responses to sticky stimuli have been measured in animal and human brains; however, precise behavioral responses and the underlying neural mechanisms are not well understood. We applied sticky stimuli to three-week-old rat pups and found the effects vary greatly across the animal\u2019s body: Sticky stimuli are quickly removed from forepaws and nose, but often evoke only little reaction from hindpaws. When we applied sticky (marshmallow, mochi) and non-sticky stimuli (water, oil) to forepaws, we observed stimulus unspecific behaviors (licking and grooming) with variable response onsets as well as three fast-onset sticky-specific behaviors. Sticky-specific behaviors were exclusively triggered by sticky stimuli and included paw shaking and paw swiping (behaviors presumably aiming at stickiness removal) and paw tapping. In tapping, animals gently tap their forepaws onto each other or on the ground; we wondered if the resulting paw-substrate detachments serve stickiness sensing. Blocking of forepaw skin sensation reduced sticky-specific responses to sticky stimuli compared to control conditions (Ringer\u2019s injections). To assess central representations of stickiness, we obtained\n                  <jats:italic>in vivo<\/jats:italic>\n                  whole-cell recordings of neurons in forepaw-somatosensory-cortex while presenting sticky and non-sticky stimuli to anesthetized rat pups. While responses were heterogeneous across the population, we observed individual neurons that had significantly different responses to stimulus detachment for sticky and non-sticky stimuli. In summary, we describe a fast-onset, body-part-specific stickiness response system in rats, which is strongly driven by forepaw skin afferents.\n                <\/jats:p>\n                <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Graphical abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:fig id=\"ufig1\" position=\"float\" orientation=\"portrait\" fig-type=\"figure\">\n                    <jats:graphic xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\" xlink:href=\"742745v1_ufig1\" position=\"float\" orientation=\"portrait\"\/>\n                  <\/jats:fig>\n                <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.08.06.742745","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,12]],"date-time":"2026-08-12T16:45:11Z","timestamp":1786553111000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A Stickiness Response System in Rats"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-1496-728X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sandra","family":"Tan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Neural Systems & Behavior, Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA, 02543 USA"},{"name":"University of Oxford, Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, Parks Road, OX1 3PT, Oxford, United Kingdom"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-9341-2898","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Simone","family":"Rencken","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neural Systems & Behavior, Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA, 02543 USA"},{"name":"Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Neural Systems Department, Max-von-Laue-Str. 4, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1048-8495","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tom","family":"Childs","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neural Systems & Behavior, Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA, 02543 USA"},{"name":"University College London, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT, London, United Kingdom"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0690-0141","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jasmine T.","family":"Stone","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neural Systems & Behavior, Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA, 02543 USA"},{"name":"Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0000-9541-0157","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Adam J.","family":"Tiesman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neural Systems & Behavior, Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA, 02543 USA"},{"name":"Neuroscience Graduate Program, Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN USA 37240"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-6059-6212","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pamela N.","family":"Anderson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neural Systems & Behavior, Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA, 02543 USA"},{"name":"Neuroscience and Behavior, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 230 Stockbridge Road, Amherst, 01003-9316, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5387-0953","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michael","family":"Brecht","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neural Systems & Behavior, Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA, 02543 USA"},{"name":"Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Humboldt University of Berlin, Philippstr. 13 Haus 6, 10115 Berlin, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5488-0902","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ann M.","family":"Clemens","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neural Systems & Behavior, Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA, 02543 USA"},{"name":"Institute for Neuroscience and Cardiovascular Research, University of Edinburgh, 1 George Square, EH8 9JZ, Edinburgh, United 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