How rats use whiskers for movement in the dark

As it turned out, rats use their whiskers for movement in the darkness, just as people use hands.

Scientists at the University of Sheffield in the research found that traveling long whiskers back and forth, rats can feel things and move in the dark without bumping into obstacles. Professor Tony Prescott: "the Rat puts its whiskers where it thinks will get the most useful information, just like we do with the fingers".
Scientists have long known that the movement of the moustache, by the sense of touch allows them to move easily in the dark. But they did not know to what extent animals were able to deliberately control your mustache.



Professor Prescott said: "Man, moving in darkness, using their hands and fingers to detect objects and obstacles. This new research shows that rats do much the same thing, but using mustache. "That is, they purposefully use their whiskers to detect objects and surfaces". In the study of animals has helped a high-speed video.

Source: nauka24news.ru/