The 'goatee' of goatfish: innervation of taste buds in the barbels and their representation in the brain.

Goatfish use a pair of large chin barbels to probe the sea bottom to detect buried prey. The barbels are studded with taste buds but little else is known about the neural organization of this system. We found that the taste buds of the barbel are innervated in a strict orthogonal fashion.