Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Movement of an organism in response to contact with a solid body.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In biology, the movement of cells and of organisms in relation to contact with foreign solid bodies.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Physiol.) The property possessed by living protoplasm of contracting, and thus moving, when touched by a solid or fluid substance.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun biology The movement of an organism either towards or away from the stimulus of physical contact.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek thigma, touch (from thinganein, to touch; see dheigh- in Indo-European roots) + –taxis.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

thigmo- +‎ taxis

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Examples

  • There is also thigmotaxis, a response to touch, rheotaxis, a response to water currents, and a number of others.

    The Human Brain Asimov, Isaac 1963

  • Since Mbnl1 −/− mice showed increased thigmotaxis, but the cause of this anxiety-related behavior is unclear, we further tested these mutants in the elevated plus maze, another anxiety test.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Anna Matynia et al. 2010

  • Mbnl1 −/− mice was performed both excluding and including mice that exhibited more than 10% thigmotaxis at the end of training.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Anna Matynia et al. 2010

  • Increased thigmotaxis exhibited by the Inactivation of Six5 or Dmpk does not affect anxiety or general motor activity in the Open Field task.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Anna Matynia et al. 2010

  • We measured thigmotaxis (amount of time in the outer versus inner zone), and general activity levels (velocity and total distance travelled).

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Anna Matynia et al. 2010

  • Six5 −/− (white, n = 7) mutant mice display normal thigmotaxis, velocity and distance travelled compared to their

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Anna Matynia et al. 2010

  • Mbnl1 −/− mice exhibited high levels of thigmotaxis, a behavior indicative of anxiety.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Anna Matynia et al. 2010

  • Mbnl1 −/− and Mbnl+/+ mice exhibiting > 10% thigmotaxis on the last day of training were excluded from these analyses.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Anna Matynia et al. 2010

  • Open Field activity, the first behavioral test performed, was assessed to examine generalized activity and thigmotaxis

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Anna Matynia et al. 2010

  • The Water Maze has non-spatial components such as swim velocity, latency or pathlength during acquisition and thigmotaxis as well as spatial components, such as spatially-selective search strategies during probe trials in which the hidden platform is removed

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Anna Matynia et al. 2010

Comments

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  • 1. Movement of an organism toward or away from any object that provides a mechanical stimulus or touch.

    2. A directed response of a motile organism to a continuous contact with a solid surface.

    3. Taxis, or movement, in response to touch stimulus.

    December 3, 2007