TY - JOUR TI - Dye-enhanced visualization of rat whiskers for behavioral studies AU - Rigosa, Jacopo AU - Lucantonio, Alessandro AU - Noselli, Giovanni AU - Fassihi, Arash AU - Zorzin, Erik AU - Manzino, Fabrizio AU - Pulecchi, Francesca AU - Diamond, Mathew E A2 - Kleinfeld, David VL - 6 PY - 2017 DA - 2017/06/14 SP - e25290 C1 - eLife 2017;6:e25290 DO - 10.7554/eLife.25290 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.25290 AB - Visualization and tracking of the facial whiskers is required in an increasing number of rodent studies. Although many approaches have been employed, only high-speed videography has proven adequate for measuring whisker motion and deformation during interaction with an object. However, whisker visualization and tracking is challenging for multiple reasons, primary among them the low contrast of the whisker against its background. Here, we demonstrate a fluorescent dye method suitable for visualization of one or more rat whiskers. The process makes the dyed whisker(s) easily visible against a dark background. The coloring does not influence the behavioral performance of rats trained on a vibrissal vibrotactile discrimination task, nor does it affect the whiskers’ mechanical properties. KW - whisker KW - beam dynamics KW - tracking KW - fluorescence KW - kinematics KW - imaging JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -