Q:

Difference between active and passive touch?

I am considering the role of whiskers in the development of the mouse brain, and came across the following: 'we found that the signals sent to the brain by the whiskers during active touch differ from those transmitted during passive touch'
But I can't seem to find what the difference between active and passive touch is...
Thank you for any help :)

A:

The difference is in whether the animal has voluntary control over the touch. If the animal touches another object by moving its body to initiate the touch, then the it is active touch. If the animal is touched without control over the movement (for example, a human experimenter grazing the whiskers with a finger), then the touch is passive.

