After a firstseries of recordings with intact vibrissae, the rats were divided intotwo groups of two individuals each. One group had their carpal vib-rissae clipped to 1–2 mm above the skin, the other, their mystacialvibrissae. In a final step, both groups had their respective remainingvibrissae clipped as well and all animals had to walk without anytactile information from these sensors.