Humans use 'whiskers' to sense like a rat.

• Position: Neurobiology - Brief article

Rats use a sense that humans do not--whisking. They move their facial whiskers back and forth about eight times a second to locate objects in their environment. Could humans acquire this sense and, if so, what could understanding the process of adapting to new sensory input tell us about how humans normally sense?

At Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science, researchers in the Department of Neurobiology explored these questions by attaching plastic "whiskers" to the fingers of blindfolded volunteers and asking them to carry out location tasks. The findings have yielded insight into the process of sensing, and they may point to novel avenues in developing aids for the blind.

"We know that our senses are linked to muscles, for example, ocular and hand muscles. In order to sense the texture of cloth, for instance, we move our fingers across it, and to see a stationary object, our eyes must be in constant motion." says Prof. Avraham Saig. "In this research...