Table 1.

Experimental overview

Experiment	Groups of rats	Description
Fine-grained distance detection	One (n = 5)	Quantify the ability of rats to gauge differences in aperture width
Cutting all whiskers	Same group as above	Control experiment to ensure that rats use only their large mystacial vibrissae
Multiwhisker integration	ARCS INTACT (n = 4) ROWS INTACT (n = 4)	Systematically remove individual whiskers to examine multi-whisker integration and whisker functionality
Role of whisker movement	FN1-a cut (n = 3)	Section facial nerve to examine role of whisker movement
Involvement of barrel cortex	SI1-b lesion (n = 3) Control (n = 3)	Lesion barrel cortex to examine involvement of this cortical region

A brief description of each of the five different experiments and the experimental groups of rats included in each experiment.

^F1-aFacial nerve.

^F1-bSomatosensory cortex.