title: Motion makes sense: an adaptive motor-sensory strategy underlies the perception of object location in rats.
abstract: Tactile perception is obtained by coordinated motor-sensory processes. We studied the processes underlying the perception of object location in freely moving rats. We trained rats to identify the relative location of two vertical poles placed in front of them and measured at high resolution the motor and sensory variables (19 and 2 variables, respectively) associated with this whiskers-based perceptual process. We found that the rats developed stereotypic head and whisker movements to solve this task, in a manner that can be described by several distinct behavioral phases. During two of these phases, the rats' whiskers coded object position by first temporal and then angular coding schemes. We then introduced wind (in two opposite directions) and remeasured their perceptual performance and motor-sensory variables. Our rats continued to perceive object location in a consistent manner under wind perturbations while maintaining all behavioral phases and relatively constant sensory coding. Constant sensory coding was achieved by keeping one group of motor variables (the "controlled variables") constant, despite the perturbing wind, at the cost of strongly modulating another group of motor variables (the "modulated variables"). The controlled variables included coding-relevant variables, such as head azimuth and whisker velocity. These results indicate that consistent perception of location in the rat is obtained actively, via a selective control of perception-relevant motor variables.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Inbar
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Saraf-Sinik
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Eldad
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Assa
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel ehud.ahissar@weizmann.ac.il.
authors.forename: Ehud
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ahissar
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D004215:Distance Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D019416:Head Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D010812:Physical Stimulation; D051381:Rats; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior; D014110:Touch; D055698:Touch Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014738:Vibrissae / Q000294:innervation
keywords: active touch; motor-sensory control; perceptual constancy; proximal stimulus; sensory coding; whisking