The myelinated fibers innervating the 11 rays were photographed and counted from an enlarged photomontage by Catania and colleagues. Among the receptors described, Marasco identified that there were receptors relatively unresponsive to compressive stimuli but were acutely responsive to any kind of stimulus that brushed or slid across the surface of the nose (Stimuli applied with large displacements and high velocity).

The star movements resembled saccadic eye movements—quick movements of the eyes from one focus point to another—in their speed and time-course.It appears that constant and repeated contact with the soil damages the sensory organs, which have a thin keratinized epidermis. This would be insufficient without an adequate processing system, but in the star-nosed mole, the processing also occurs at a very high speed almost approaching the upper limit at which nervous systems are capable of functioning. In 1993, Edwin Gould and colleagues proposed that the star-like proboscis had electroreceptors and that the mole was therefore able to sense the electrical field of its prey [26] prior to mechanical inspection by its appendages. Thus, tweezer-like teeth and the exquisitely sensitive star likely evolved together as a means to better find and handle small prey quickly. In some favorable cases, a smaller third set of stripes was also apparent; opposite to other body structures that have a unique representation, with each half of the body represented in the opposite cerebral hemisphere.

The high-low stories are written at two levels in prose and again using illustrations and speech bubbles with a comic feel about them. This foraging behavior is exceptionally fast, such that the mole may touch between 10 and 15 separate areas of the ground every second. It is unique among mammals in having a muzzle tipped with 22 fleshy tentacles that are constantly moving.The contrast between darkness and light is beautifully depicted through the deep softness of the textures.