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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 27, 2026

Whisker-signaled Eyeblink Classical Conditioning in Head-fixed Mice

Whisker-signaled Eyeblink Classical Conditioning in Head-fixed Mice

Published on: March 30, 2016

Whisker-based spatial cognition in mice.

Camille Mazo¹, Shubhi Pal¹, Quang Minh Do¹

¹University of Bordeaux, CNRS, Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience, IINS, UMR 5297, 33000 Bordeaux, France.

Current Biology : CB

|March 25, 2026

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Mice use their whiskers to determine object location in space, achieving precise tactile localization. This whisker-based spatial perception is adaptable and not dependent on specific whiskers or object features.

Keywords:

active sensing mouse behavior mouse whisker object localization sensory space perception somatosensory cortex

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Last Updated: Mar 27, 2026

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Somatosensation
Sensory processing

Background:

Object localization is well understood in visual and auditory systems.
The neural mechanisms for tactile object localization in external space are unclear.
Whiskers are crucial for tactile exploration in rodents.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how tactile inputs from whiskers are transformed into a percept of object location in mice.
To determine the spatial acuity and characteristics of whisker-based tactile localization.
To explore the role of the primary somatosensory cortex in tactile spatial judgments.

Main Methods:

Developed a whisker-based categorization task for head-restrained mice.
Required mice to judge object positions in the horizontal plane.
Analyzed spatial acuity, bias, and generalization across whiskers, objects, and hemispaces.

Main Results:

Mice achieved submillimeter spatial acuity in object localization.
Spatial judgments were robust and showed minimal bias relative to the category boundary.
Mice demonstrated generalization of learned spatial categories to novel positions.
Tactile localization depended on the whisker-related primary somatosensory cortex.

Conclusions:

Mice construct a robust percept of object location using their whiskers.
This tactile perception is not tied to specific sensors or stimulus features.
Whiskers support sophisticated tactile localization in external space, independent of specific sensory inputs.