Research in Action: Toad’s Tongue May Help Improve Motors

A cane toad from Suriname is helping Northern Arizona University Regents Professor Kiisa Nishikawa understand the speed, power and energy behind the toad’s ability to capture prey with its tongue. Her studies offer insight into how muscles function more as springs than motors.

This fresh perspective, funded by the National Science Foundation, could lead to designing more efficient electric motors, better prostheses and new medical treatments for neuromuscular diseases like Parkinson's.

A toad's jaw muscles can produce forces greater than 700 times the animal's weight. "The best electric motor achieves about one-third of that force-to-weight ratio," Nishikawa noted. "When a toad or chameleon captures prey with its tongue, it exerts force over a distance. Figuring out how they do it has immense application to any device that actually moves."

Credit: Photo by Danielle Borth, Northern Arizona University