The present study examined the human ability to learn a new sensory
modality, specifically “whisking”. An experimental apparatus containing
artificial whiskers, force sensors, position sensors and computer interface
was developed. Twelve participants took part in an experiment containing
three tasks: pole localization in the radial dimension, roughness estimation,
and object recognition. All tasks were performed only through use of the artificial
whiskers which were attached to participants’ fingers. With little or no practice
humans were able to localize objects, recognize shapes and assess roughness with
accuracy equal to or greater than that of rats in equivalent tasks, though with longer
times. While the number of available whiskers significantly affected shape recognition,
it did not affect radial localization accuracy. Introspection by participants
revealed a wide range of motor-sensory strategies developed in order to
solve the tasks.