A posterior nerve ring gives rise to a pair of pedal nerve chords, which innervate the foot muscle. A large pair of pallial visceral nerve chords completes the nerve ring. Some families do have specialized eyes called the aesthetes. These are mantle sensory cells that penetrate the articulamentum of the shell and are lodged within vertical canals leading to the outside of the shell. In some chitons these are only tactile sensory organs.
Most chitons are herbivorous - feeding on unicellular and multicellular algae.
They scrape this alga off of the rocks and other substrates on which they live, by means of their hard, raspy radular ribbon. The mouth is located at the anterior end, in front of the foot and opens into a buccal cavity containing the radula - and a smaller, more ventral subradular sac that in turn contains a sensory structure. When the chiton feeds, the subradular organ is first protruded and held against the surface. If food is sensed, the odontophore with its radula project from the mouth and begin to scrape the algae off the substrate. When the radula is retracted, these food particles are pressed against the roof of the buccal cavity and carried into the esophagus.