'Where' and 'what' in the whisker sensorimotor system

In the visual system of primates, different neuronal pathways are specialized for processing information about the spatial coordinates of objects and their identity — that is, ‘where’ and ‘what’. By contrast, rats and other nocturnal animals build up a neuronal representation of ‘where’ and ‘what’ by seeking out and palpating objects with their whiskers. We present recent evidence about how the brain constructs a representation of the surrounding world through whisker-mediated sense of touch. While considerable knowledge exists about the representation of the physical properties of stimuli — like texture, shape and position — we know little about how the brain represents their meaning. Future research may elucidate this and show how the transformation of one representation to another is achieved.