Multisensory Integration and Orofacial Structures: The Potential for Visual and Auditory Modalities to Rescue Diminished Tactile Inputs Following Tooth Loss.

Traditionally, systems neuroscience has focused on singular sensory systems operating in near isolation, ignoring the complexity of the brain's inherent ability to integrate multiple sensory modalities in a symphony of signals that creates our perception of the world around us. The Merging of the Senses has been integral in fueling the exponential growth of the multisensory field, though there are still a wealth of discoveries to be made. Here, we highlight the naked mole-rat as an animal model for an understudied body region that may reveal robust multisensory influences: the teeth. We propose neural and behavioral experiments for evaluating the multisensory underpinnings related to the teeth and how a multisensory perspective can be used to assess plasticity following tooth loss.