Scientists achieve breakthrough in understanding sense of touch
The journal Cell's cover story features research findings by University of Wyoming neurobiologist Jeff Woodbury. He was part of a research team that is providing a new understanding of the sense of touch.
(Medical Xpress) -- A research team including University of Wyoming neurobiologist Jeff Woodbury has discovered a new technique to determine how the touch sensory system is organized in hairy skin, providing a new understanding of the sense of touch.
Their findings were selected to appear as the feature and cover article in Cell, one of the pre-eminent international journals in the biological sciences.
The research provides the first picture of how nerve cells that carry signals from hair on the skin are organized. Unlike all other senses, the skin is least amenable to study and has remained the most poorly understood.
"We have described the system that is in place to help explain how sensory information is processed to perceive the sense of touch," says Woodbury, an associate professor in the UW Department of Zoology and Physiology. He was part of a multidisciplinary research team led by David Ginty from Johns Hopkins University. Colleen Cassidy, a doctoral student in Woodbury's lab, was a co-author of the study, which also included colleagues from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Rockefeller University, University of Pennsylvania and University of Pittsburgh.
"We have also been able to identify how combinations of nerve cells respond to fine-tactile stimuli, so we can now really begin to tease apart the circuitry of touch sensation," Woodbury adds. "One of the real breakthroughs is that, for the first time in more than 200 years of study, we now know the specific functions of some of the many different kinds of nerve endings in the skin. This is truly exciting and a major advance."
Mice have several different types of hair follicles in their coat, each of which is linked to the central nervous system by low-threshold wire-like nerve cells that stretch all the way to the spinal cord. There, the myriad signals carried from the skin are integrated, processed and sent to the brain.
This network of nerve endings in the skin of most hairy mammals, including humans, allows them to perceive fine tactile sensations, such as a drop of rain or an insect landing on their skin. The researchers now have a better understanding of how this complex system is organized. Before this discovery, Woodbury says there was no way to see how all of these different nerve cells were arranged -- both in the skin and at the top of the spinal cord, where they end up.
The study, Woodbury says, opens doors to understanding not only touch, but skin senses such as temperature detection and pain.
"Touch is ultimately felt in the brain; it alerts us that something is going on," he says. "We have identified the logic of how this system is organized. We now know that each individual hair is a distinct sensory organ, and each one will detect different forces. A broad spectrum of frequencies within a given stimulus are ultimately recombined and analyzed until we become aware that something has happened, like a drop of rain or a light breeze."
Once the different sensory neurons are identified, researchers could test hypotheses about the role of these cells in the process of sensation.
"For example, researchers could study the animal, in the presence or absence of each of the different types of sensory cells, to determine differences in the animal's behavior," Woodbury says. "It will be possible to shut them off, take them out of the picture, to see how the animal responds to different types of stimulation. The key to understanding any system is first to gain a marker to identify all the different components, and we have made a major step in that direction."
Provided by University of Wyoming
-
How skin is wired for touch
Dec 22, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
People with DFNA2 hearing loss show increased touch sensitivity
Dec 09, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
The molecular basis of touch sensation: New function of a well-known gene identified
Feb 21, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Researchers finds hidden sensory system in the skin
Dec 08, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Cold feeling traced to source
Dec 18, 2007 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Motion perception revisited: High Phi effect challenges established motion perception assumptions
Apr 23, 2013 |
3 / 5 (2) |
2
-
Anything you can do I can do better: Neuromolecular foundations of the superiority illusion (Update)
Apr 02, 2013 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
5
-
The visual system as economist: Neural resource allocation in visual adaptation
Mar 30, 2013 |
5 / 5 (2) |
9
-
Separate lives: Neuronal and organismal lifespans decoupled
Mar 27, 2013 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
0
-
Sizing things up: The evolutionary neurobiology of scale invariance
Feb 28, 2013 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
14
-
Why is zone 1 in liver more prone to ischemic injury?
7 hours ago
-
How can there be villous adenoma in colon, if there are no villi there
May 22, 2013
-
How can there be a term called "intestinal metaplasia" of stomach
May 21, 2013
-
Pressure-volume curve: Elastic Recoil Pressure don't make sense
May 18, 2013
-
If you became brain-dead, would you want them to pull the plug?
May 17, 2013
-
MRI bill question
May 15, 2013
- More from Physics Forums - Medical Sciences
More news stories
Breakthrough on Huntington's disease
Researchers at Lund University have succeeded in preventing very early symptoms of Huntington's disease, depression and anxiety, by deactivating the mutated huntingtin protein in the brains of mice.
Neuroscience
5 minutes ago |
not rated yet |
0
Researchers identify networks of neurons in the brain that are disrupted in psychiatric disease
Studying the networks of connections in the brains of people affected by schizophrenia, bipolar disease or depression has allowed Dr. Peter Williamson, from Western University, to gain a better understanding of the biological ...
Neuroscience
1 hour ago |
not rated yet |
0
Pay attention: How we focus and concentrate
Scientists at Newcastle University have shed new light on how the brain tunes in to relevant information.
Neuroscience
1 hour ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
|
New imaging techniques used to help patients suffering from epilepsy
New techniques in imaging of brain activity developed by Jean Gotman, from McGill University's Montreal Neurological Institute, and his colleagues lead to improved treatment of patients suffering from epilepsy. The combination ...
Neuroscience
1 hour ago |
not rated yet |
0
Common brain processes of anesthetic-induced unconsciousness identified
A study from the June issue of Anesthesiology found feedback from the front region of the brain is a crucial building block for consciousness and that its disruption is associated with unconsciousness when the anesthetics ketami ...
Neuroscience
2 hours ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
Researchers suggest boosting body's natural flu killers
A known difficulty in fighting influenza (flu) is the ability of the flu viruses to mutate and thus evade various medications that were previously found to be effective. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have ...
Anxious men fare worse during job interviews, study finds
Nervous about that upcoming job interview? You might want to take steps to reduce your jitters, especially if you are a man.
Frequent heartburn may predict cancers of the throat and vocal cord
Frequent heartburn was positively associated with cancers of the throat and vocal cord among nonsmokers and nondrinkers, and the use of antacids, but not prescription medications, had a protective effect, according to data ...
Second-generation TAVI device—Lotus Valve—shows good performance in REPRISE II
22 May 2013, Paris, France: The Lotus Valve, a second-generation transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) device, was successfully implanted in all of the first 60 patients in results from REPRISE II reported at EuroPCR ...
Major human drug trial underway for Alzheimer's
A potentially ground-breaking human drug trial is currently underway, which aims to discover whether blood pressure medication can slow or halt the progression of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). This is the latest ...
New discovery in fight against deadly meningococcal disease
Professor Michael Jennings, Deputy Director of the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University, was part of an international team that discovered the previously unknown pathway of how the bacterium colonizes people.