Ehud Ahissar
jhalper | January 28, 2016
The whisking of a rat’s whisker is a classic example of “active sensing” – in other words, sensing that involves movement. Prof. Ehud Ahissar studies rat whisking in order to understand how mammals perceive through all types of active sensing; without the continuous movement of whiskers, fingertips or eyes, our perception of our surroundings would be lacking. (If you don’t believe us, try feeling the texture of your shirt or desktop without moving your fingers. You can’t stop your eyes – as you read this, your eyes are actually moving back and forth in tiny movements.)
In the latest research…
jhalper | November 5, 2012We have been told what it’s like to be a bat or a bird; now Prof. Ehud Ahissar and Dr. Avi Saig are getting people to experience what it’s like to be a rat. Specifically, they want the participants in their studies to learn what it’s like to locate things in the dark by twitching their whiskers.
The point, of course, is not to get humans to pretend they are actually rats, but to see how they learn to sense the world with a new sense. Whisking is a fairly complex sense, involving spatial coordinates – horizontal, vertical and distance from the base of the whisker – and timing. It only works…