2023-10-20 12:00:00
“Nothing is softer, nothing gives the skin a more delicate, more refined, rarer sensation than the warm and vibrant coat of a cat,” wrote Maupassant. This “vibration” dear to the novelist was still synonymous with scientific uncertainties until last week. The team of Professor Christian T. Herbst from the University of Vienna, specializing in acoustics, reveals in a study published in the journal Current Biology that “low frequency phonations (20-30 Hz) of the purring ranges can be obtained on the excised larynxes of domestic cats. And this in the absence of muscular contraction or neuronal induction.”
The researchers identified around the larynx a connective tissue (cell type very common in organisms, which allows the connectivity of other tissue types) four micrometers thick which they named “cushion”, because it surrounds the vocal cords. Conclusion: no muscle contraction or nerve impulse is necessary. The same aerodynamic mechanisms that generate higher frequency vocalizations, such as meows within the vocal folds, enable the emission of purring.
Communication and anxiety purring
The tracks previously followed were numerous. “The purring was localized in the throat, in the larynx,” recalls Jean-Yves Gauchet, veterinarian in Toulouse and author of My cat and I take care of each other! (ed. Courrier du livre) […] Read more
1697803845
#discovery #mysteries
