title: Tactile object localization by anticipatory whisker motion.
abstract: Rodents use rhythmic protractions of their whiskers to locate objects in space. The amplitude of these protractions is reduced when whiskers contact objects, leading to a tendency of whiskers to only lightly touch the environment. While the impact of this process on the sensory input has been studied, little is known about how sensory input causes this change in the motor pattern. Here, using high-speed imaging of whisking in mice, we simultaneously measured whisker contacts and the resulting whisking motion. We found that mice precisely target their whisker protractions to the distance at which they expect objects. This modulation does not depend on the current sensory input and remains stable for at least one whisking cycle when there is no object contact or when the object position is changed. As a result, the timing and other information carried by whisker contacts encodes how well each protraction was matched to the object, functioning as an error signal. Whisker contacts can thus encode a mismatch between expected object locations and the actual environment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Plasticity, USC, Los Angeles, California;
authors.forename: Jakob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Voigts
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Plasticity, USC, Los Angeles, California; Neuroscience Graduate Program, USC, Los Angeles, California; and.
authors.forename: David H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Herman
authors.affiliation: Donders Centre for Neuroscience, Department of Neurophysiology, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tansu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Celikel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D059031:Anticipation, Psychological; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009043:Motor Activity; D013037:Spatial Behavior; D014738:Vibrissae; D014741:Video Recording
keywords: active perception; barrel cortex; sensorimotor; whisking