The Sensorimotor Basis of Whisker-Guided Anteroposterior Object Localization in Head-Fixed Mice

Active tactile perception combines directed motion with sensory signals to generate mental representations of objects in space. Competing models exist for how mice use these signals to determine the precise location of objects along their face. We tested six of these models using behavioral manipulations and statistical learning in head-fixed mice. Trained mice used a whisker to locate a pole in a continuous range of locations along the anteroposterior axis. Mice discriminated locations to ≤0.5 mm (<2°) resolution. Their motor program was noisy, adaptive to touch, and directed to the rewarded range. This exploration produced several sets of sensorimotor features that could discriminate location. Integration of two features, touch count and whisking midpoint at touch, was the simplest model that explained behavior best. These results show how mice locate objects at hyperacute resolution using a learned motor strategy and minimal set of mentally accessible sensorimotor features.