"Real-time" monitoring of vibrissa contacts during rodent whisking

Rodent whisking behavior provides active touch as input into a widely studi ed model system of information processing and behavior. We previously devel oped a simple optoelectronic system to monitor whisker movements in "real t ime" in head held rats at rest or performing various tasks such as tactile discrimination. We now describe a simple piezioelectic film device for dete cting initial whisker contacts during whisking also in real time. In some a pplications this is as effective as high-speed videos and can be configured to isolate the contacts from different whiskers. The construction of this simple device is detailed. In addition to providing information during reco rdings from awake animals, the device could be used, for example, as an ope rant "manipulandum" for contingent reinforcement of object detection with a whisker.