CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Rats use whiskers as humans use fingers and now U.S. scientists have shown the whisker movements underlying rats' tactile perceptions.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers said just as humans move their fingertips across a surface to perceive shapes and textures, rats twitch their whiskers to achieve the same goal. In the study, MIT neuroscientists captured on high-speed video how rats rely on their whiskers, devoting large areas of their brains to decoding the incoming signals.
Assistant Professor Christopher Moore, a member of MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research and senior author of the study, said the findings could help further understanding of perception across species.
"Now that we can see what the rat's whiskers are telling the brain, we can start to understand better how this amazing perceptual system works," said Moore. "This understanding is relevant not only to the human sense of touch, but to all forms of perception, because every sensory organ is an interface between the mind and the external world."
The research that included postdoctoral scientists Jason Ritt and Mark Andermann appears in the journal neuron.
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